Partners In Crime
by Skates16
Summary: Lilly and Jackson know that Oliver and Miley like each other, even though they won’t admit it. So, what are they going to do? Play matchmaker of course! But is it right to fall for your partner in crime? Written with Jesus.Lives. Lackson. COMPLETE!
1. Monday

_And it's my new Lackson fic, written by me and Jesus.Lives! So there's a trailer for this, so go to 201easyboy on youtube and watch it! There's also a link up on Jesus.Lives' profile and I'll put one up on mine too. So... enjoy the first chapter then I guess._

**Monday**

"Lilly, the dance is coming and no one has asked me!" Miley said as she walked up to her best friend's locker.

"Well, if it's any help, I don't have a date either." Lilly said, closing her locker and leaning against it.

"So, are we going to ditch the dance?" Miley asked. Lilly looked around the school and spotted Oliver walking towards them.

"How about you ask Oliver? I doubt he has a date." Lilly said, turning to look at the shocked look on Miley's face.

"Oliver? Lilly, are you serious?" She asked.

"As a friend Miley, two friends going together, no need to go all defensive as if I'm saying that you like him or something." Lilly said.

"Who likes who?" Oliver asked as he joined them.

"Oh, I was just saying you two should go together to the dance… as friends." She added when Miley and Oliver opened their mouths to complain.

"I don't want to go to the dance." Miley and Oliver said together.

"Yeah, sure, whatever." Lilly said as the three of them walked into their next class.

"No, seriously." Oliver and Miley said again.

------

"They are so blind." Lilly said as she leaned against the counter at Rico's, watching Miley and Oliver talking to each other. Oliver had said something stupid again and Miley was rolling her eyes at him, but smiling.

"Yeah, what are you talking about?" Jackson asked, putting down two bottles of waters for Lilly.

"Miley and Oliver, I can tell that they like each other, I'm with both of them the whole day anyway." Lilly said, turning to face Jackson. "I just wish there was some way I could help them realize that."

"Ever tried to set them up on a date or something?" Jackson asked.

"Yeah, I've tried to get them to go to the dance together, as friends. They won't agree though." Lilly said and sighed.

"What you need is someone cunning and sneaky who can help you get those two to the dance next week Friday, without finding out our plan of course." Jackson said.

"Yeah, you're right! But who can I find that's cunning and sneaky?" Lilly asked, thinking. "Aha! Where is Rico?"

"R-Rico?" Jackson said.

"Yeah, he can help me!"

"I don't think Rico would help you. I was actually suggesting someone like… me?"

"You? You want to help me set your sister up with Oliver?" Lilly asked. Jackson smiled and nodded. "What's in it for you?"

"Only to know that my sister will finally be happy?" Jackson said.

"Very funny, real reason?"

"Uh… ok, so I don't exactly have a date for the dance either and I was hoping you could help me out with that too. You're a girl and if you haven't noticed, I'm having trouble getting dates lately." Jackson said.

"You want me to help you get a date for the dance? Why don't you ask Miley for advice?" Lilly asked.

"Well, she is my little sister and can take this as an advantage to forever taunt me. So what do you say, do we have a deal?" Jackson asked, holding out his hand. Lilly smiled and shook his hand.

"Deal."

* * *

_I know this chapter is short, but they get longer. Much longer. So review and then go see the trailer!_


	2. Tuesday

_Is there something wrong with or something? It's taking me forever to put up a chapter now! Anyway, thanks for the reviews from the first chapter guys!_

**Partners In Crime**

**Tuesday**

"Miley, I think I found a solution to your problem." Lilly said, walking up to her friend Tuesday morning.

"What problem?" Miley asked.

"Your dateless problem. The school has this website where you can meet people, you can use that to get a date!" Lilly said.

"I don't know, Internet dating isn't safe." Miley said.

"But it's going to be someone in the school. Come, what do you have to lose?" Lilly asked, turning Miley in the direction of the computer room.

"That I end up getting asked by someone one that I don't like?" Miley said. Lilly sighed.

"Miley, if you get along with any guy you meet, look past everything else. Even if they might be a geeky guy who wears glasses. Like him for what's inside." Lilly said.

"Since when did you become deep?" Miley asked, smiling a bit.

"I knew you were going to go along with it! Now come on, we only have ten minutes to sign you up." Lilly said as she entered the computer room. They took a seat at the nearest computer and Lilly logged onto the site. "Now, what will your user name be?"

"How about… Hannah Montana?" Miley asked. Lilly shrugged and typed it in.

"Sorry, someone already has it."

"Hannah101." Miley tried again. Lilly typed it in and smiled when it accepted her. She filled out the rest of the sign up sheet and smiled.

"Great, now come back later and see if anyone is interested." Lilly said, shutting down the computer and getting off the chair.

"Do you really think this will work?" Miley asked. Lilly looked down the hall and saw Jackson walking towards his locker.

"Yeah. I have to go see someone now, I'll meet up with you in homeroom." Lilly said. Miley nodded and walked off while Lilly turned around and headed towards Jackson. "Miley's on the site. How is it going with you and Oliver?"

"I still have to find him, it will probably only happen during lunch. What is Miley's username?" Jackson asked as he got his books out of his locker.

"Hannah101." Lilly said.

"Huh, thought she was going to make it obvious and go with Miley or something. Now, when are you going to help me?" Jackson asked as he closed his locker and looked at her.

"After school, I'll meet you at Rico's." Lilly said as the bell rang.

"Fine, I'll see you later." Jackson said as he walked off towards his class. Lilly smiled as she turned around and walked towards her class. Later, she couldn't wait for then.

------

"Oliver!" Jackson said as he saw said boy walking past him.

"Yeah?" He said, turning around.

"I need to talk to you." Jackson said and put an arm around Oliver and led him away from the cafeteria. "I hear from a source that you don't have a date for the dance next week."

"And that source would be Miley?" Oliver asked.

"No, actually Lilly. But anyway, I have a solution for you. There's this school Internet dating service, you can find a date there. What do you say?" Jackson asked.

"I don't know…" Oliver said.

"It's totally safe, I found my girlfriend on there… Brittany! You know Brittany?" Jackson said.

"No…"

"Anyway, I can't let you go to the dance dateless while I'm going with a super hot babe." Jackson said. "So just sign up and see what happens."

"I guess." Oliver said as Jackson pushed him into the computer room. He sat him down at the computer and logged into the website.

"Ok, what should your username be?" Jackson asked.

"Uh… Mike3?" Oliver said. Jackson typed it in and sure enough, it was free. Jackson completed the rest of the form for Oliver and then they were searching the other few members that had just joined.

"BeccaW09? Wonder who she is?" Oliver said as Jackson was going through the names.

"Becca Weller." Jackson said as they went to her profile page. She had put in all her information in there, including her name, age and locker number.

"Ok, moving on. Hannah101? Can we look at her profile?" Oliver asked as they looked at recently joined. Jackson clicked on it, smiling to himself. Oliver was making this all to easy fro him.

"She's a freshman, like me. Likes to sing and be around her two best friends. Likes someone who can make her laugh sometimes, but can also be serious. Well, that cancels her out." Oliver said, sitting back.

"What, why?" Jackson asked.

"I'm not the type of guy she'd want. Next?" He said, trying to take the mouse away from Jackson.

"Wait, hold on a minute. Oliver, this girl is perfect for you, just give it a try. Send her a message or something." Jackson said. Oliver was quiet for a moment before he finally nodded. Jackson moved away from the computer while Oliver started typing a message.

"Hey, while you do that, I'm going to go now." Jackson said. Oliver nodded and Jackson left the room, smiling. Now Lilly just had to help him get the girl.

------

"Ok, so now I helped you, you help me." Jackson said as he put a plate of fries down on the counter. Lilly picked up the bottle of tomato source and squirted some onto the fries.

"You do realize I need your help all the way up to Friday next week when they meet at the dance." Lilly said, eating a fry.

"Yeah, that just gives you a week to help me out. Now, where do we begin?" Jackson asked, stealing one of Lilly's fries.

"Ok first off, who is this girl?" Lilly asked.

"Well, her name is Chloe, she's in my maths class. Blonde hair, blue eyes and is totally into extreme sports… mostly skateboarding." Jackson said.

"Ah, I see why you're asking me for help. So what trick do you want to learn? I'll go with an Ollie; it's the easiest to learn. Then we can put it to practice and add some other skills to it." Lilly said, going on and on about tricks.

"Lilly, stop. I'm not going to impress her with tricks because I tried that once and it didn't work out. I'm asking you for help because the two of you are similar. I just need to know a little bit more on skateboarding and stuff." Jackson said.

"Oh! Ok, that I can do. But you see, some girls do like a guy who isn't in to the same sports as her, it makes them different. I'll give you a little bit of help on information and such, but after that you have to work your own magic." Lilly said and then put her head on her hands.

"Yeah, that could work." Jackson said, leaning forwards and stealing another one of Lilly's fries. Lilly watched his face as he looked down at the plate and then to his right as he heard Rico coming. "Sorry Lilly got to go."

"Uh, yeah, same here. I'll see you tomorrow Jackson." Lilly said quickly and then got off the seat, leaving behind the half eaten plate of fries.

_What is wrong with me? Why do I feel so weird around Jackson now? _She thought as she entered the Stewart's house and ran up to Miley's room.

"Lilly? That you?" Miley said as she heard her door open.

"Yeah. Whatcha doing?" Lilly asked as she entered Miley's room.

"I'm on that site. I got a few messages from some guys, but they sound stalkerish." Miley said. Lilly looked over Miley's shoulder and saw a message at the bottom, from Mike3. Jackson had mentioned that was Oliver's username.

"What about that guy. Let's see what he says." Lilly said. Miley shrugged and clicked on his icon.

"He says his friend put him up to mailing me. Oh great." Miley said and was about to close the window, but Lilly stopped her.

"He says he's funny, but most of the time he makes a fool of himself, so says his two friends. He can be sweet and sensitive sometimes, though no one really knows that." Lilly said. _Ha, right Oken, sure…_

"Really? Well, that's kinda better then the ones I've gotten so far. Won't hurt to write back to him, will it?" Miley said, looking at Lilly.

"Oh yeah, sure. Go ahead and write back, I'll be in the Hannah closet trying on shoes." Lilly said and snuck away, smiling. _One day down, 12 more to go!_


	3. Wednesday

_So after writing a sad and depressing one-shot, I give you this! _

**Partners In Crime**_  
_

**Wednesday**

"Hey Jackson!" Lilly said as she met up with him early that morning.

"Hi Lilly." He said as he walked towards his locker. "Any updates?"

"Miley got the message from Oliver and almost didn't read it." Lilly replied.

"But she seemed happy this morning." Jackson said as he opened his locker.

"That's good, maybe this is working." Lilly said as she turned around to look at Miley walking down the hallway towards the freshmen lockers. "And Jackson, today after school, we're going to the skate park."

"Why?" Jackson asked.

"Oh, you'll see." Lilly said and ran off to catch up with Miley.

------

Lilly held her skateboard under her arm as she got to the skate park, Jackson in tow.

They looked around at everyone enjoying the facilities. Chloe was pretty easy to spot she was the only real stunner there and Lilly knew Jackson's type.

"That's her isn't it?" Lilly indicated. She didn't need to though; Jackson was already indicating to this enough as he was staring with a drooling open mouth. She closed it for him.

"Smooth" she stated.

Jackson seemed to recover. "I am so smooth thank you very much."

"Well, Mr Smooth… watch and learn" Lilly took off on her skateboard and skated beside the girl that apparently had gotten Mr Smooth ga-ga for the moment.

Chloe noticed her as she did a few tricks in front of her. "Hey, you're pretty good. I've seen you around here before."

Lilly skated past her, "Yeah, hi. I'm Lilly."

"Chloe" the other girl responded and stuck out her fist for Lilly to smack hers into, which Lilly did.

"So you're always down here?"

"When I'm not studying."

"You're a junior right?"

"That's right."

"My friend over there is a junior too." Lilly pointed to Jackson, who was trying to look riveted by the other skaters and not look at the two of them. "You like surfing?" she asked.

"Yeah, sure" Chloe responded taking another lap around the park, when Lilly had caught up to her again she asked if they could go surfing some time tomorrow and then skated back to Jackson.

"Hey, you were supposed to be getting me a date, not making one yourself."

Lilly pushed him, "I'm doing you a favor. If you tag along with us, you'll get your opening."

"Yeah, and then the whole school will know I hang out with freshmen." Jackson scowled.

"Well as of tomorrow, so does she."

He jumped up and down with false excitement, stating sarcastically, "Well gee willigers I'm lucky to have a friend like you."

"Unless you want to pass her a note during Math class, I suggest that you come along with us tomorrow."

"Mr Smooth happens to have illegible handwriting." Jackson responded defensively.

"Well let's get back to your house, Mr Smooth and see if Hannah101 is still getting to know Mike3." Lilly said, taking hold of the front of his shirt and dragging him out of the skate park and towards his car. Lilly put her skateboard down and started to skate away when Jackson called out to her.

"Yeah?" She asked, stopping the board and turning around.

"Don't you want a lift to my house?" He asked.

Lilly picked up her board and ran over to him. "Yeah, sure."

She got into the passenger seat, dumping her board in the backseat. Jackson got in and reversed out of the parking lot, turning the radio onto a random station. I'd Lie by Taylor Swift started playing.

_I don't think that passenger seat,_

_Has ever looked this good to me…_

Lilly and Jackson completely ignored the song and spoke about their upcoming plans.

"What if they want to meet before dance?" Jackson asked.

"Uh, we'll get to that if it comes. Now, onto you and Chloe…" Lilly said.

"Yeah, what about it?" Jackson asked looking at her quickly.

"You must start a conversation with her first. You're a surfer, aren't you?" Lilly asked.

"I surf a bit…"

"Great! Then you can join us!" Lilly said.

"No, Lilly, you see…" Jackson started, but it was too late. They were at the Stewart's house and Lilly was out of the car before he could finish his sentence.

_If you asked me if I loved him, I'd lie…_

"Miley!" Lilly screamed up the stairs.

"Lilly!" Miley screamed out her door. Lilly ran up the stairs and into her best friends room. She jumped onto the bed and turned to face Miley who was sitting at the computer.

"You get a reply from Mike3 yet?" Lilly asked.

"Yeah, he sounds like a great guy. He's so sweet, he's talking about his two best friends and how they drag him into things, but he sticks with them no matter what happens. Isn't that sweet?" Miley asked.

_Not really, seeing as this is Oliver… _Lilly thought, but shrugged.

"Yeah, I guess so. Write back to him now!"

"Ok, I will. By the way, what's up with you and Jackson?" Miley asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I saw the two of you by his lockers this morning and you left school with him, so spill."

"There's nothing to it, I'm helping Jackson ask a girl out to the dance, that's all." Lilly said.

"You sure?" Miley asked.

"Positive."

* * *

_And you meet Chloe! Will Jackson be able to win her over? Or will she be like all the other girls he goes out with? And what's gonna happen with this internet dating site? And does Rico come into play? All this will be answered later on, but what you need to do is leave a review..._

_Wow, that was weird. Ok, I promise never to do that you guys again!_


	4. Thursday

_Some of you like Chloe, but don't want to. I'm sorry, but I don't think that'll change. Anyway, this whole chapter was written by Jesus.Lives! _

**Partners In Crime**

**Thursday**

"So Chloe. This is my friend Mr Smooth."

Jackson kicked Lilly as discreetly as he could. "And this is my friend Miss Doesn't Want a Lift Home".

Chloe chuckled. "You're a junior too?"

"Yep. It took a long time to get to that pivotal point in my life, but now that I'm there…"

"You're not accepting an award, Jackson, a simple yes or no would suffice" Lilly cut into his speech.

"Yes. Yes I am."

"Cool. You surf?"

"Are you kidding?" Jackson's voice suddenly went high. "I was born in the ocean."

"O-Kay" Lilly and Chloe said at the same time.

"Aw, I didn't mean literally. I just meant…" Jackson hurriedly tried to explain himself to Chloe.

Lilly smirked. Jackson actually looked pretty cute when he was grovelling – which was about 90 percent of the time because anytime she'd seen him try to get a date on his lonesome before he'd been seconds away from begging for it. She really had to talk to him about that. Most girls didn't date guys who had to get on their hands and knees for it.

"- I was actually born in Tennessee" he was finishing.

"But they don't have beaches in Tennessee" Chloe looked confused. Lilly shook her head. Yep. A genius. Jackson could sure pick 'em.

"Well no. But I learn real fast." he held the "l" in real for a very long time, his southern drawl coming through.

"Great. See if you can catch up" Chloe said grabbing her board, flipping her hair and running down to the waves. Jackson was caught up in admiring her from behind and hardly noticed Lilly's hand waving in front of his eyes.

"You going to stand there all afternoon?"

"Well it is a great sight," he said in a daze.

A sound escaped Lilly's lips that sounded like a 'pft' and she ran down to catch up with Chloe. She was going to show Chloe what it was all about out there. After all, any other blonds that were skaters and surfers had to be just posers. This was her game and she was going to own it.

"Hey! Wait for me!" Jackson called, pulling down his wetsuit pants and waddling down to the coastline with them.

Lilly caught another wave in, her hips moving as she rode her board along the ripple of the water. Jackson was still out in the deep, getting waves splashed in his face as Chloe ignored his pick up attempts and followed Lilly in on the next wave trying to catch up with her.

Lilly's face grew determined as she saw Chloe coming up to her from the corner of her eye. Lilly swerved and got in her path, Chloe swerved in the other direction away from her, leaning forward to push along with the wave.

All Lilly's strength was on beating Chloe.

All Lilly's mind was focused on riding this wave in to the end.

All until something broke her concentration.

"Lill-ay! In the water spray!" She heard it faintly, but she knew the whole beach must have heard it. She wobbled. She wavered. And she fell.

"Lilly!" Jackson saw her body separate from her board and started to swim as quickly as he could to shore, lugging his board behind.

Chloe had made it in on the wave first, and Lilly's body washed up when Oliver was running down the beach towards her. Jackson got there first.

He bent down and put his head to her chest, not really knowing what he was doing but having seen it in movies. There was a quiet heartbeat, but she still wasn't waking up.

Oliver ran his hand through his hair, feeling guilty and at a loss over what to do. "Whoa."

Jackson pressed on her upper chest a few times, a quick hard hitting to try to bring her back. He plugged her nose with his fingers and tilted her head back, casting a panicked look at Oliver who just shrugged helplessly, looking just as panicked as Jackson.

He took a deep breath and put his lips over Lilly's breathing into her and then standing clear. The first thing he heard was a gurgling sound and he bent her head up. Her eyes and mouth opened at the same time and she spat up the salt water in her lungs.

Jackson and Oliver high-fived, and laughed relieved that she was OK. Chloe flung her arms around Jackson.

"You saved her!"

Jackson was in shock, but he recovered fast, "Yeah… I did what I could, little lady."

Lilly got herself up and whacked Oliver on the arm. "You donut! I could have been killed!"

"Hey! I was just yelling hi!"

She hit him again and then turned and saw Chloe who had her arm around Jackson. Chloe? Who just had her arm around Jackson? Lilly felt like she was screaming inside. 'Hey! He just saved MY life. What do you think you're doing?'

She forgot that this was the plan all along and now Jackson owed her big time. She was just thinking about how his hair was slicked back and his cheeks were pink from just having to heave his breath into her. Oliver slung his arm around her shoulders.

"Are you going to be ok?"

Lilly was still looking at Jackson who was seemingly to be reveling in the attention he was now getting from Chloe. Lilly felt sick in the stomach and she knew it wasn't from her near death experience. "Yeah. If my donut best friend doesn't try to kill me again."

"I wasn't trying to kill ya, Lils. I was just saying hi!"

"Must you rhyme everything you say?"

Lilly went to go and pick up her board, which had washed up nearby on the shore and heard someone run off after her.

"Wait till Miles hears about this. She'll have to be nice to me knowing I saved you." Jackson puffed out his chest.

Lilly put her hand over hers and pretended to get choked up and about to cry. "My hero." She smiled at his bravado that he dropped slightly in front of her and then turned back and saw Oliver trying to start a painful looking conversation with Chloe. "Looks like you're Chloe's hero now too."

He slapped her on the back, "And it's all thanks to you. Anything you want, it's yours. You just have to ask."

"Anything?" Lilly pretended to think, but there was really only one thing she wanted right now. She wanted Jackson to take a few steps away from that floozy Chloe and say he'd never speak to her again. Of course that was out of the question since Lilly was the one that set them up. Oh, fate was being cruel to her today. "Just seeing you, Miley and Oliver happy is enough for me." She answered.

"Wow. Nothing for yourself? No personal chauffer or help to get in with the cool kids in our grade? No free grub from Rico's? You really are one in a million, Lilly."

"Nah, I don't know about that" Lilly replied shyly, she bent to pick up her board.

"At least let me take that," Jackson said taking it out of her arms.

"OK" Lilly agreed as he struggled to get both boards up the beach leaving her to chuckle and go to link arms with Oliver.

_Nope._ She thought as they all went back off the beach. _He was the one that was one in a million._

"Uh Lilly, there's something I need to ask you. It's about my date to the dance…" Oliver said.

"I'm not going to be your date to the dance." Lilly said.

"No, actually, Jackson got me on this Internet dating thing at school and I met this girl. I don't know who she is, but she sounds amazing! I think I might ask her to the dance…" Oliver said.

"Really, what's her username?" Lilly asked, frowning and looking concerned for him.

"Hannah101, do you think you know her?" Oliver asked.

"I don't know, but what do you have to lose? Ask her, meet up at the dance. She'll probably say yes anyway!" Lilly said.

"Thanks Lills, you're the best!" Oliver said, giving her a quick hug and then running off down the beach.

_Yeah, I better be. _She thought and then took one last glance at Jackson before walking away.

* * *

_Poor Lilly, looks like things are just getting worse for her now. But things seem to be doing ok with Oliver. Oh, you donut..._

**jade-kwl-name-eva and Jesus.Lives**


	5. Friday

_Aww man, you guys really don't like Chloe. But hey, she's interfering with Lackson... Anyway, looky, an update! I know, I've been updating everyday (almost) but I like updates! Don't you? Uh, I just had ice-cream. Chocolate ice-cream. That gets me hyper very quickly. Especially when it's really hot._

**Partners In Crime**

**Friday**

"Lilly!" Miley screeched and before she knew it a pair of arms were enveloping her in a bear tight hug.

"I guess you heard" Lilly said trying to get herself free.

"Oh Jackson might have mentioned it. A couple of times. A few times. Every time he wanted something."

"Wow, he must be milking it." Lilly said.

"But I'm just glad he was there to save you! If something happened... it would be just as bad as the day I lost my mom." Miley said.

"Miley, it's ok. I'm not going anywhere anytime soon." Lilly said and then hugged Miley. She then saw Jackson across the hallway, looking at them.

"Hey Lils! Glad to see you're still amongst the living!" He came up and joined in on their hug, making it a group hug. Miley shrugged him off of them.

"Ok. Hug's over. Nothing to see here."

"Aw. Is my little sister jealous that her big brother had to save the day because she wasn't around?"

"You're not getting any favours from me Jackson." Miley's voice was stern.

"Just some Hannah tickets to surprise my new girlfriend with... that's all I ask!"

Miley felt caught, she looked to Lilly who said, "G-girlfriend?"

"Yeah, Chloe and I are going out tonight, hopefully to the Hannah concert." Jackson said, looking at Miley.

"Lilly? Does your hero deserve tickets?" Miley asked.

"Uh... yeah, he does." Lilly said.

"Fine. Jackson, you've got the tickets." Miley said.

"Backstage pass?"

"Don't push it. Now, bye." Miley said and ran up the stairs to her room.

Lilly turned to Jackson. "Thanks Lilly. Heh. I guess I thought there must be some perks to saving your sister's best friend."

Lilly didn't know what to say. Those perks were hardly the perks that she wanted him to be after. 'How about the satisfaction of knowing that you saved my life?' she wanted to yell at him. She wanted to yell a lot of things at him in fact, but she didn't.

Lilly went and got her skateboard from the door and yelled to Miley upstairs. "Miley, you ready to go to school yet?"

"Yeah, but Lilly, come up here quickly!" Miley shouted back. Lilly sighed and ran up the stairs to Miley's room. She was sitting by her computer, looking at her mail.

"Yes?" Lilly asked.

"Mike3 asked me to the dance! Should I say yes? I mean, I think I might like this guy, even though I don't know him. Maybe I should meet him before the dance." Miley said.

"Miley, say yes. Who else is there for you? Everyone has a date now and the dance is on in a week." Lilly said.

"But you don't have a date." Miley pointed out.

"Forget about me, this is about you. If you think it could work out between you two, go for it." Lilly said. Miley nodded and typed a quick reply to Mike3 before she got off the chair and the two of them walked downstairs.

Jackson sat in his car and waved at the two of them as they left the house. "You guys want a lift?"

"Well..." Lilly stared at him in his car.

"What do you want for it?" Miley asked him suspiciously.

"I just want to see my sister and her friend get to school safely without anything happening to them."

Miley and Lilly exchanged a look. "Good enough for me." Miley jumped in the back, "Let's go!"

"So, Jackson. Going to the dance?" Miley kept up the conversation with her brother. Lilly just kept looking out the window watching things whizz by and wondering how long she could bottle up everything she'd been feeling for the past day.

"Yep. I got a feeling that thanks to Lilly the dance will go pretty good."

Miley raised an eyebrow, "Thanks to Lilly?"

"Oh, I kinda helped him out in that area." Lilly said.

"Oh, so that explains why you two have been hanging out together this week." Miley said.

"Uh, yeah." Lilly said. Before long they were at Seaview High and Miley dashed out of the car quickly, not wanting to be seen with Jackson. Lilly got out and walked with Jackson inside the school.

"So, you're going to ask Chloe to the dance?" Lilly asked.

"Yeah, tonight at the concert. I know she'll say yes, she can't resist my charm." Jackson said.

"Is Mr. Smooth coming back to us?" Lilly asked.

"When did he ever leave?" Jackson asked as they entered the school. "I'll see you around Lilly." He said and then walked off towards Chloe who ran up to give him a hug. Lilly glared at her before running of to catch up with Miley at their lockers.

_Speaking of Mr Smooth,_ Lilly thought to herself as she saw Oliver round the corner, slapping various students on the back and acting like he was now best friends with the entire student body.

"What's got into you?" Lilly had to ask him when he came and leaned on the lockers nearest to theirs, a smile as big as she'd ever seen on his face.

"His Okeness will not be going to the dance alone."

"His Okeness?" She shook her head.

"Yeah..." Oliver said. Lilly sighed.

"Whatever. Your mystery girl said yes?"

"Yep, just before I left to come to school, I got a reply. I guess she just can't resist my charm." Oliver said.

"What charm?" Lilly asked. "And she hasn't met you yet, the girl could still run away screaming when she sees you."

_I hope not_, Lilly thought.

Oliver's face fell. "Run away? You really think so?"

Lilly put on a fake smile for his benefit. "Of course not. You're His Okeness. Your date is going to love you."

Miley turned to them, "And you're not going to be the only one with a mystery date."

"You too?" He asked, his voice going strangely high.

"Yep and he sounds..." Miley then trailed off, a dreamy look on her face. She obviously thought highly of this guy.

_Wonder if she'll think the same thing when she finds out._ Lilly thought._No._  
She mused. _She'll probably try to break every bone in my body if she finds  
out I set them up. That's it._ Her verbal monologue continued. _If she finds  
out, I'm blaming Jackson._

"He sounds what?" Oliver asked, a confused look on his face. Miley snapped out of her daydream and looked at him.

"Never mind, you wouldn't understand." Miley teased.

_Oh boy, here they go_. Lilly thought.

"So what are you saying? That I'm not sensitive?"

"Of course you're sensitive" Miley rebuked him. "When you're not stuffing your face or checking out chicks or... being yourself."

Lilly laughed. "She's got you there" she told Oliver, slapping him on the  
arm.

"Yeah, well... a guys gotta eat." Oliver said and then realized that was a lame come back. "Ok, I'll be back with a new come back to that."

"Sure." Lilly said, looking like she actually believed him while he walked away. "I think we might've hurt his pride."

"He'll get over it." Miley said. "But this weekend, you're coming with me to the mall to help me pick out an outfit for my date."

"I'll be there." Lilly said as the two of them interlocked their arms and walked towards their homeroom class.

"By the way Lilly, who's going to be your date?" Miley asked.

Lilly stopped walking and looked at Miley. "M-My date?"

She blushed and Miley seemed like she read her mind.

"Yeah, even Jackson has a date. Ew... gag. So there's got to be some boys lining up to take you."

"Nope. There's really no one I want to go with. Looks like I'll be spending the night watching movies with your dad. My mom has a meeting."

"You have to come! I can't face my date alone!"

"Sure you can. And you'll always have that sensitive friend of ours to help you out."

"Yeah, unless Oliver's date turns out better than mine."

* * *

_Seems like Miley could be doubting her date... And Lilly is dateless! Gasp! What's a girl to do? I don't know, wait for the next update I guess? And while you wait, you can enjoy some complimentary peanuts. Or leave a review. Whichever makes you happy.  
_

**jade-kwl-name-eva and Jesus.Lives**


	6. The Concert

_You guys want us to kill Chloe off? Whoa! It's not her fault you know, it's Jackson's. He can't see a good thing that's standing right in front of him... tsk tsk..._

**Partners In Crime**

**The Concert**

"Be right back." Jackson said squeezing Chloe's hand quickly before getting up to go to Hannah's dressing room. He was hoping that he would be able to catch his sister so that Chloe could meet Hannah tonight.

He went and opened the door, when he saw it was 'Lola' there waiting, he enveloped her in a bear hug so tight she struggled to breathe.

"Jackson. Let. Go." she struggled to get out. He let her go and kissed the top of her head dramatically, leaving her to wince visibly.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

"What'd I do?"

"Only introduced me to the best date I've ever had in my life."

"Oh. Yay?"

"Can't you be more enthusiastic than that?" he asked, grabbing her hands and forcing her to jump up and down with him.

"Yay!" She replied with more vigour. 'Hannah' came in the room as he was still forcing her to do a "happy dance" for him.

"What do you want Jackson?"

"What makes you think I want..." he started, but 'Hannah' just looked at him pointedly. "Can Chloe come back here?" 'Hannah' sighed.

"He did save my life" 'Lola' put in for him.

"Fine" she agreed, and Jackson left the dressing room, still jumping up and down. "I may as well meet the girl that's got him so excited. I mean every once and a while you've gotta throw that boy a bone. But it is fun to watch him beg."

"Yeah." 'Lola' felt a bit queasy and sat down on the couch in the middle of the room. "Real fun."

A few minutes later, Jackson came back with Chloe. 'Lola' stood next to 'Hannah', trying her best to put on a happy face, but was finding it hard.

"Chloe, meet Hannah Montana." Jackson said. Chloe's eyes went wide as she saw 'Hannah' standing right in front of her.

"Oh my gosh, I'm a big fan of yours!" She said.

"Good to know." Hannah said. "Well, this is my close friend, Lola."

Chloe looked over at Lola and gave her a smile, but didn't get one back. She frowned, but Jackson came and put his arm around her shoulder.

"Can't you give us a tour Hannah?" He asked. Hannah nodded and the three of them walked out of the dressing room, leaving Lilly to sulk.

------

"You've actually met Orlando Bloom?" Chloe asked.

"Yes and Jesse McCartney." Hannah said.

"Eep!"

Miley frowned, this chick reminded her so much of Lilly. She was a skateboarder, a surfer and blonde! What was Jackson doing?

"You know, I've met Joey Vitalo." Jackson said.

"Who's he?" Chloe asked, turning towards him.

"Uh… never mind."

"Well, would you look at the time? I've got to go now, but here's an autograph for you." Miley said, entering her dressing room again. Lilly had fallen asleep on the couch. She quickly got out a photo, signed it and handed it to Chloe.

"Thanks." She said as she started to leave. Lilly woke up and sat up, looking at Jackson and Chloe leave the dressing room. But before Miley closed the door, she saw Jackson lean down to kiss her and felt her stomach turn.

"Chloe is worse then you." Miley said as she sat down on the couch next to Lilly. "Actually, she's exactly like you."

"Really? I never noticed." Lilly said, her eyes still on the closed door. "Can we leave now? I'm not feeling well."

"Ok." Miley said, looking at her. The two got off the couch and Miley opened the door. Lilly expected to see Jackson and Chloe standing there, but they were gone. Instead, Robby Ray was there now.

"You girls ready?" He asked.

Lilly nodded and walked past him, blinking back tears.

------

Miley wanted to slap him upside the head when they got home. I mean... there were boy brains and then Jackson brains were on a whole other level. He was dating a girl that was just like Lilly!

"Don't you think she reminds you of another girl that likes skating and surfing... I don't know... about this high" she indicated to someone a bit shorter than her, "and who has blond hair down to here?" she indicated a hair length just past her own.

"Yeah, that's why I asked for Lilly's help in winning her over." Jackson bit into an apple that he got from the counter.

Miley was still resisting the urge to slap him. "Don't you think it's a bit strange that you would date a girl like... her?"

"Why?"

Urgh. He just didn't get it.

"Because she's not your type!" Miley spat out exasperatedly. "Sweet niblets!" If it was true that this sudden choice of girl could mean he was harbouring inner feelings for Lilly... her Lilly... best friend Lilly. Then Miley was going to be sure that he was in his right mind first.

"That's where you're wrong, little sister. Because I just happened to have the best night of my life." Jackson said before walking up the stairs to his room, humming a song.

Miley just groaned and sat down on the couch. Should she interfere or not?

* * *

_So Jackson just doesn't get it... It's sad._

**jade-kwl-name-eva and Jesus.Lives**


	7. Weekend

_I was at the mall today with my friends and we went into a music show that was advertising the Hannah Montana Pop star profile DVD and there was a banner with Hannah at the front and then Jackson and Lilly standing next to each other behind her. Hhm, wonder if that means anything? _

**Partners In Crime**

**Weekend**

"Miley!" Lilly said, banging on the changing room door.

"Yeah?"

"I got the skirts you asked for." Lilly said. The door opened and Miley grabbed the clothes out of Lilly's hands and shut the door in her face. Lilly sighed and leaned against the wall next to the changing room door. "How many articles of clothing have you tried on today?"

"Probably thirty." Miley replied. Lilly sighed and looked at her watch. They had been in the mall for an hour and Miley hadn't found anything to wear to the dance. "Lilly, what are you wearing?"

"I don't know yet." She replied, not really caring.

"Well then go find something! I'll catch up with you later." Miley said.

"Fine, meet you in the food court in an hours time." Lilly responded and left the changing rooms and the store. Lilly did not feel like shopping for clothes right now, so she headed towards a skateboarding store.

This was her store; she had to come here every time she visited the mall. She could spend the whole day just looking at the new boards and looking for new wheels for her board. But today she did not expect one person to be there.

"Lilly!" Chloe said once she entered the store. Lilly turned to face her and noticed that Jackson wasn't with his girlfriend today.

"Hi Chloe. You come here too?" She asked.

"Are you kidding me? This shop is the best. I'm trying to get a job here." She said, holding up a sheet of paper. "And then I'm looking for something to wear at the dance. Hey, you can help me with that!"

"Oh, I'd love to but I've got… to be somewhere else right now." Lilly said. "Nice to see you again."

"Ok, some other time then." Chloe said as she left the store. Lilly put her hands in the pocket's of her jeans and looked down at the ground while she just walked.

_Stupid Chloe, why does she have to steal everything from me? _Lilly thought. Her shop, surfing, boarding and Jackson… _Whoa, I did not just think that!_

Because Lilly wasn't watching where she was going, she ran into someone. She looked up and saw Oliver. "What do you want?"

"What's wrong with you today?" He asked as she walked around him.

"Nothing." She mumbled.

"Someone's rubbed you the wrong way." He commented, falling in step with her.

"Go away Oliver."

"Ok, ok. Since you're here, have you seen Jackson or Miley?" He asked. Lilly stopped walking and turned to face Oliver.

"Jackson's here?"

"Yeah, he told me to meet him here."

"Sorry, haven't seen him. He might be looking for his girlfriend."

"Jackson has a girlfriend?" Oliver asked, looking as if he didn't believe it. _He's not the only one…_

"Yes, so moving on… Why did Jackson want to meet you here?"

"Beats me." Oliver said and shrugged. Lilly knew Jackson was planning something and she had to find him.

"Well, Miley's somewhere in these clothing stores." Lilly said and waved her hand around. "So if you're going to find her, good luck."

"Gee, thanks Lilly." Oliver said before walking off. Lilly just rolled her eyes and backtracked to the skate shop. Chloe was there, but no sign of Jackson. She then decided he'd be at his other favourite spot; the food court.

On her way there, she spotted Oliver and Miley. Miley was holding up a dress and probably asking what Oliver thought about it. The poor boy looked like he didn't know how to speak, causing Miley to shake her head at him, but smile.

"There you are!" She heard someone say and saw Jackson walking out of the food court.

"You were looking for me? I'm flattered." Lilly said.

"Well, I am helping you get those two together." He said, looking over at Miley and Oliver.

"So that's why you invited Oliver here. And I thought Rico was the best guy for the job." Lilly said and patted him on the shoulder.

"And I helped you see the error of your ways." Jackson said, grinning at her. Lilly felt her heart start racing, so she looked away. "You ok?"

"Uh, yeah, fine." She said and then saw Chloe walking towards them. Jackson spotted her and motioned for her to join them. She came running towards Jackson and threw her arms around his neck, hugging him.

"I got the job!" She said excitedly. Lilly's face fell, was nothing of hers safe from this wannabe?

"That's great!" Jackson said. "We have to go celebrate. How about we go down to Rico's?"

"Sound fantastic. But later on I'm going down to the skate park." Chloe said and then looked at Lilly. "You want to join?"

Lilly looked at Jackson and then behind her at Miley and Oliver. She had nothing better to do. "Sure."

------

"Hey Jackson! Check this out!" Chloe called to him and he waved, Lilly feeling her blood boil as Chloe performed a complex trick.

_I can top that_, she thought, cracking her knuckles and getting in position. She rolled her board forward and back getting ready to jump on it and go sailing onto the ramp and do a triple 360 turn.

Lilly took a deep breath and skated onto the half pipe. She skated up and down a couple of times, pulling her board towards her, trying to gain more speed and air time. When she finally gained enough speed, she went for it. Her board left the end of the pipe; spinning once, twice, thr... it didn't make it.

She went flying, quite literally through the air and fell ungracefully near a group of boys who were now laughing at her very hard. To make things worse, the hand that came and pulled her up was Chloe's.

"Are you OK?"

"Boy, Lilly," Jackson whistled, "You are just a magnet for disaster."

He didn't even ask if she was all right? She felt like she was steaming. Lilly rolled her shoulder which felt a bit out of place and tried to ignore the scrapes she was feeling in the various places that she fell onto.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Lilly said to Chloe and glared at Jackson. She picked up her board and skated off towards the half pipe again. She was going to try again now.

"Lilly, do you think that's a good idea?" Chloe called to her, but she ignored her.

_You can do this Lilly, you can show them who is the queen of this skate park. _She thought. She skated up the pipe, gaining speed and airtime again.

"Lilly…" She heard Jackson's voice, but blocked him out. She went up and managed to get to the right height. She spun once, twice, three times…

Her board landed on the pipe and she made it back safely. She grinned and turned her board to stop it from going back up the ramp, but fell off it and skidded across the ramp, burning her skin.

"Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow." She kept saying periodically as she rolled on the ramp. Jackson and Chloe ran over to her.

"It hurts." she screwed up her face.

"Well, it takes a big girl to admit that." Jackson said and then laughed at his own statement. "Ha! Big girl."

"Isn't someone gonna help me up!" Lilly complained, looking between them. Chloe helped her up once again. Lilly moved her arm out of Chloe's grasp and picked up her board. "I'm leaving."

"Ok, I'll see you around Lilly." Jackson said. Lilly felt her heart break, what was wrong with him today?

"Bye Lilly, see you round!" Chloe said as Jackson wrapped his arms around her. Lilly glared at them and stormed out of the park.

* * *

_Peanuts for everyone again! You guys enjoyed them last time. And I'm betting you really, really, really hate Chloe now... _

**jade-kwl-name-eva and Jesus.Lives**


	8. Monday, 4 Days To Go

_I thought I wasn't gonna update today... sorry for the wait then, coz I'm not updating usual time. _

**Partners In Crime**

**Monday**

Lilly had a while to think about things, wondering why picturing Jackson with his arm around Chloe was so disturbing to her. She'd seen Jackson with his arm around hundreds of girls! Well... OK... not really hundreds, more like dozens. It had never gotten to her like this before.

"What's up you?" Oliver said sitting across from her in the cafeteria as she played with her food.

"Nothing." Lilly said and stabbed her fork into the salad on her tray.

"Something's up because you bought yourself a salad instead of the burger." Oliver said.

"I said nothing!" Lilly snapped. Oliver's eyes went wide and watched as his friend started to mutter something under her breath.

"Hey, what's wrong Lilly?" Miley asked as she sat down next to Oliver.

"Nothing, just leave me alone!" Lilly said and left the two of them sitting there.

"OK. That was..."

"Weird." Miley finished.

"Tell me about it." heaved Oliver. "No, seriously. Tell me. Have you heard anything?"

"No. But she was acting weird at the mall yesterday too. Think she's keeping something from us?" She looked at him, and he shrugged. "Nah," she reassured herself, "Lilly and I share everything together."

"Even boyfriends?" Oliver asked stupidly, stuffing his mouth.

"No you donut." Miley said, shaking her head. "It's not possible to share boyfriends."

"Why not?" Oliver asked.

"Boy, what is wrong with you?" She asked.

"I'm just asking…" Oliver said. "So… know who this guy is who you're going to the dance with?"

"No, but I'm getting nervous. I don't know if I should go through with this." Miley said, fidgeting with her napkin thinking about her date.

"Same here. How about we make a deal, if your date doesn't live up to what you expect, we'll ditch the dance together." Oliver said.

"Aw, you're so sweet Oliver." Miley said. "But I think I better find out what's wrong with Lilly."

"Be my guest." Oliver said as Miley left the table. He then pulled Miley's tray closer to him. "More food for me."

"Hey Toots." Rico pointed his finger at Miley as she went past and he went to sit down next to Oliver.

"So... has my sweet thang got a date for the dance?" Rico asked.

Oliver had his cheeks bulging out with food, "oo 'ean 'iley?" He tried to say before swallowing.

"Brains the size of a fruit fly." Rico commented.

Oliver waved this off, "Yeah, she has a date for the dance. Some guy she doesn't know."

"A guy she doesn't know?" Rico asked. "How can you get a date for the dance with a guy you don't know?"

"I dunno, I guess she signed up on this school Internet dating thing. I signed up too." Oliver said as he finished off his lunch.

"So, this guy could be anyone?" Rico asked. Oliver nodded before he left the table. Rico grinned evilly and rubbed his hands together. He was going to get a date, and that was going to be Miley…

------

"Lilly," Miley said as she sat down on a bench outside the school. "Talk to me."

"About what?" She asked.

"Why you're in a terrible mood today."

"Oh that" Lilly tossed a hand back carelessly. "That's nothing. Just woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning." She linked arms with Miley and got her to start walking with her to the lockers. "Now what are we going to do about your dance date, missy?" She asked avoiding the question.

"Missy?" Miley raised an eyebrow.

_Meanwhile._

"Internet dating site. Internet dating site. Here we are!" Rico shouted in the school library, getting hissed at by other students and librarians. "OK. Now what's the most obvious name that Miley could come up with?"

He went over to the recently joined since the last week. There were about 20 usernames, 5 were girls.

"Well, this is just too easy." He said. But it wasn't. He went onto each of the girl's profiles and they never gave out information that he needed to connect them with Miley. The usernames didn't help either.

"Looks like Rico's going to have fives dates for the dance then." He said as he sent a message to all the girls after creating his own profile.

"Soon Miley and I will be dancing in the middle of the gym." Rico said and then laughed evilly, making the librarian kick him out. Rico swore he would get revenge on her, after the dance of course.

-----

"Hey babe" Jackson said to Chloe as he met her outside the school. She smiled at him, looking as if she'd forgotten that they went to school together.

"Hey Jackson."

"You want to do something now? There's always popcorn and movies at my place... or we could shoot hoops... or you could just hang out with my family."

"Hang out with your family?"

"Um... yeah" Jackson didn't know what possessed him to say that. Maybe Miley was right. Maybe he was taking it for granted that Chloe looked and acted a bit too much like Lilly. Now he was expecting her to do all the same things Lilly did when she was over too!

"Uh… ok. Sure." Chloe said and kissed his cheek. "Let's go."

The two of them walked towards his car when they heard laughing behind them. Jackson turned his head and saw Miley, Lilly and Oliver walking out of the school together, laughing at something Oliver had obviously said.

His gaze fell on Lilly's face. It seemed to glow as she smiled at her two friends. She then turned to look at the parking lot and their gaze met. He could've sworn he saw that smile on her face disappear slightly…

"Jackson?" Chloe asked. "You still with us?"

"Uh, yeah." He said and got in his car and started it. But as he drove off he had Lilly's smile stuck in his head.

* * *

_Poor Jackson... doesn't know what he wants. And Miley and Oliver still haven't figured it out, but now Rico's added to the mix! _

**jade-kwl-name-eva and Jesus.Lives**


	9. Stewart House

**Partners In Crime**

**Stewart House**

"You got home pretty fast." Jackson said when the others came in the door.

Lilly, Miley and Oliver went straight past them into the kitchen with a small wave from each of them. Lilly just wanted to get them up to Miley's room as quickly as possible.

Jackson was trying to teach Chloe how to play the playstation. "Com'on girl!" Lilly could hear him chiding her; "You can do this in real life. Why can't you do it on the game?"

"It's harder with a controller." Chloe said.

"Move to the left… no… watch out!" Jackson said, grabbing the controller out of her hands. "You're almost as bad as Lilly."

"I've been practicing!" Lilly said from the kitchen.

"Oh yeah? Would you like to prove that to everyone here?" Jackson asked. Lilly put down the glass she got out and walked towards Jackson and Chloe. She sat in-between them and grabbed a controller.

"You're on." Lilly said. Jackson picked up the other controller while Chloe watched the two of them.

He stuck his tongue out to the side in deep concentration of the game as Miley and Oliver stood behind the couch, cheering for Lilly.

"No... No... No... Stupid controller!" Jackson said, a few "boo-yahs" later when he'd somehow allowed Lilly to get in the lead.

"Well, how about that?" Miley commented as the game was coming to a close, "Jackson Stewart not gloating."

Lilly smirked, "Must be because he's a..."

"Loser." Both girls chimed at the same time.

Jackson fell of the couch pretending he was shot. "Oh. Oh. My ego! The pain!"

Lilly threw a cushion at him in jest. "Better let you and your girlfriend keep practicing." She said getting up at last, watching Jackson's face fall and then try and cover up all disappointment with an act of bravado.

"Uh, yeah, sure." Jackson said and got off the floor and back onto the couch. Lilly then quickly ran up the stairs, Miley and Oliver trailing behind.

"Come on Jackson, I want to see if I can beat you just like Lilly." Chloe said, picking up her controller again. Jackson picked up his one and lost every single round because his mind was in a different place.

------

"Let's see if I've got any new replies from my mystery man." Miley said, sitting in front of her computer. Lilly then started to panic, because Oliver was in the room.

"Uh, Oliver, can you go down and get us… a soda!" Lilly said.

"Go get it yourself." He said as he sat down on Miley's bed.

"Please Oliver." Lilly said. The boy just shook his head.

"Oliver, just get the sodas. You know Lilly is too lazy to get them herself." Miley said, turning in her chair to face them.

"Fine…" Oliver said, getting off the bed. "But you owe me for this.

"Wow!" Miley exclaimed logging in. "I've got a message from someone else who wants to be my date for the dance."

"Someone else?" Lilly raised an eyebrow. Inside she was panicking. This was not good. This was not good. The way this was supposed to go was that Oliver would be her date and her back up plan. She couldn't have two back-up plans.

"Yeah, what sort of desperado e-mails girls the day before the dance to get a date?" She scoffed, hoping Miley would buy it.

"You're right." Miley said, but clicked on the guy's profile anyway. Lilly sighed and then fell onto the bed, waiting for her whole plan to blow up in her face now. See, this is what happens when you're partner gets sidetracked…

"He seems full of himself." Miley commented. "I won't accept, Mike3 sounds better then this guy."

Lilly sighed and sat up, just as Oliver came back into the room. "Thanks to you, I had to watch your brother and his girlfriend make-out on the couch." He walked over to Miley's side and looked at the computer screen. "Oh, you're on that dating site from school!"

"Me?" Miley squeaked. "I can get a date, just fine, boy. I don't need no dating site." she said closing the screen.

"Of course not. You and me. Needing help getting dates..." Oliver started, waving it off, "pfft. Yeah, right. Smokin' Oken is the ladies magnet of the school."

"All right there, Mr Magnet. We get the point," Miley told him. Lilly sighed with relief and lay back on the bed. She wondered what would happen when they found out that they were each other's dates. Hopefully they wouldn't find the way back to her… just to Jackson. Lilly smiled and looked over at the two of them.

------

"All right, let's see if I got any replies." Rico said, logging into his email. He got replies from all 5 girls, all of them turning him down. Still no step closer to becoming Miley's date.

"I could always pose as her date." Rico said to himself. He then started laughing evilly, rubbing his hands together. "This is better then torturing Jackson."

He thought about this. "Nope. But it comes a close second. Mwhahahahahahahaha!"

"Now she has a date, and I have no idea of her username... but speaking of Jackson, I know someone who can find out for me. I just have to blackmail him to hack into her computer. This will be as easy as pie. Freshly baked pie."

Rico suddenly had a urge to get himself pie and which he planned on getting before going to the Stewarts house to dig up some dirt on Jackson.

* * *

_Mmm... pie, I want some now! Maybe I'll give out pies this time? And as always, leave a review telling us what you liked about this chapter and what you didn't like. Oh, and who saw the Oscars?I'm watching the re-peat tonight, but you can talk about that in your review too, after you've finished talking about this chapter. _

**jade-kwl-name-eva and Jesus.Lives**


	10. Tuesday, 3 Days To Go

**Partners In Crime**

**Tuesday**

Rico peered around the corner to where Jackson's locker was. He was in front of it with a blond.

"Well, well, well. Jackson's got himself a girlfriend. She'll get tired of him by the end of this week." He wondered if Jackson would have anything in his locker worth breaking into it for. Then he remembered half the movies that he's ever seen.

"Wait! Jackson has a girlfriend! I'll just use Jackson's girlfriend to get to him! And soon Miley will be mine!" Rico said to himself. He hung around until the bell for class went off. The girl walked in the opposite direction while Jackson walked towards him.

"Hello Jackson."

"You torture me after school, why do it during?" Jackson asked as he turned to face Rico.

"I need information about your sister." Rico said.

"Why do you need information about my sister? And what makes you think I'd tell you anything?" Jackson asked.

"I have my ways and they involve your new girlfriend." Rico stated, grinning.

Jackson stopped. OK. He was going to play hardball. Well, the Jacksonator could swing right back. "What about her?"

"I have plans for her. Plans not involving you. Plans well deserving of a... Mwhahahahahahahahaha." He threw his head back.

"Oh please. You're going to have to do better than that." Jackson brushed him aside and started walking towards class.

"Your job is also involved!" Rico shouted at him, but it didn't look like Jackson heard him or just didn't care. Rico glared at him and turned around to walk towards class when he saw Lilly walking towards the same classroom. And Lilly happened to be a friend of Miley's…

"Lilly," Rico said, walking towards her. Lilly stopped walking and looked around for the person who called for her. She then looked down and saw Rico. "I need some information on Miley."

"What kind?" Lilly asked, frowning.

"I need to know her username on the Internet dating site." Rico said. But he needed something on her to get it.

"Yeah, sure, like I'd give it to you." Lilly said, walking past him.

"I know your secret."

She stopped walking. How could he know? Was it that obvious? "W-What secret?"

"The one you've been hiding from everyone… especially Miley." Rico had no idea what secret he was talking about, but it did look like Lilly had a big one.

"You know I like Jackson?" She blurted out and then put her hands over her mouth.

"Oh... yeah. I know all about it. Now." Rico smiled and gave her a wink. "Mwhahahahahahahha."

Lilly grabbed his arm and took him aside, hissing, "Look if I tell you, you have to promise to leave Miley alone until after the dance. I've got something big planned and we've been working really hard on it. Nothing can screw this up."

"Hm... don't know if I can do that." Rico said idly.

Lilly lifted him up by his shirt. "I'm not asking you."

"I'll tell Jackson!" Rico threatened.

"Fine." She said. "Tell Jackson, he'll think you're lying. It's my word against yours."

"I'll fire him then." Rico said. "Then you have to live with the guilt when he is sitting on the street, all alone with no where to go…"

"Ok, you win." Lilly said, sighing. She put Rico back down on the ground. "Her username is… is…"

"Yes…" Rico said, leaning in closer, waiting for it.

"It's… you'll never get it out of me." Lilly said and walked past him.

"This isn't over blondie!" Rico shouted after her.

"Mmm... I really want some more of that pie." he finished up his dialogue and went to see if he could get out of his next class to get pie, and continue plotting.

------

"Hey Lilly. I got another message from Mike3." Miley joined up with her in the bathrooms.

"Oh yeah? What'd it say?" She nudged her, "Is he as excited about the dance on Friday as you are?"

"No." Miley said, disappointment in her voice. "He wants to cancel."

Lilly could hear herself screeching; in fact she was sure the rest of the school could hear it too. "He wants to WHAT?"

"Lilly, is there something wrong with me?" Miley asked. "I mean, I had to go onto a dating site to get a date! And then he cancels on me. Lilly… Lilly are you listening to me?"

Lilly wasn't listening to Miley. She was thinking about how stupid Oliver was being. _Oh, he's so dead now… _

"Lilly!" Miley shouted in her ear.

"Hey! No need to shout, I'm standing right next to you."

"But you weren't listening to me." Miley said.

"Sure I was… something about your Internet date." Lilly said and then looked at her watch. "Hey, would you look at the time? I've got to look for Jackson!"

Miley frowned. "Why Jackson?" But she never got an answer, because Lilly ran out of the bathroom.

She ran down the halls until she came across Jackson standing by his locker, no Chloe in sight.

"Jackson! We have a problem."

"Yeah. Rico's trying to blackmail me to get information on my sister."

"No. Not that problem. Oliver! He cancelled on Miley."

Jackson tried to pretend he cared more about his sister's love life... but found he just couldn't. "You know, I've already done my part of the bargain." He said, realizing there was nothing stopping him from walking away from the whole thing.

"And your part of the bargain was Oliver."

"Why don't you fix it?"

"Because I can't tell him I know all about him and the dating site, that'll ruin the whole thing." He noted the desperation in her voice. "Look Jackson, are you my partner on this or not?"

Something in the way she said it made him stop. Sure, he'd already gotten the girl and thus had no more to do with this whole ploy. But she almost made it seem like she needed him. It was nice to feel wanted. He shrugged. "Sure. I'll get on Oliver's back about it today."

Lilly sighed. "Thank you Jackson!" She said and threw her arms around his neck, hugging him. This shocked Jackson, but he hugged her back. When she didn't let go, he patted her back.

"Uh… Lilly?" He said.

"Oh, sorry." She said and pulled out the hug. "I guess I'll go now then. I'll see you around."

"Yeah." Jackson said and watched as she walked away. He turned around and saw Chloe standing by his locker, smiling at him.

"That was nice of you." She said.

"Huh?"

"Helping your friend out. Since we've been going out, you've only ever been with me. I was starting to worry if maybe Lilly was only posing as your friend or something." She said.

"Oh no, Lilly's my friend." He said and put his arm around her shoulders. "You excited for the dance?"

"Yes." Chloe said. Jackson was about to kiss her when he saw Oliver across the hallway. If he wanted to get out of this as quickly as he could, now was his chance.

"I'll meet up with you later. There's something I have to do." Jackson said, walking away.

"Ok, see you in maths!" Chloe said and carried on walking.

"Oken! We need to talk, now."

He remembered that he couldn't mention about knowing Oliver's choice to cancel because as far as he knew, Oliver hadn't told anyone else about their little dating site idea.

He indicated for Oliver to come take a walk with him and put an arm around his shoulder leading him outside the building.

"I need to talk to you about your date for this dance."

"Oh, yeah? Think I'm going to go stag."

"And look pathetic?" Jackson tried to sound surprised, hoping his reaction would change Oliver's mind.

"Look man. I know what you're trying to do."

Jackson's voice caught in his throat. "Um..."

"I don't need to go and look for a girl on the Internet! It's a stupid idea and besides, I'm Smoken' Oken." He said. "I can get any girl."

"Oh yeah, then ask someone out." Jackson said, crossing his arms.

"Ok." Oliver said and looked around. He saw a girl walking by them to go back inside. "Hey, how you doing? Got a date for the dance?" The girl shook her head and kept on walking.

"Not a word." Oliver said as he walked back to Jackson.

"I wasn't going to say anything." Jackson said.

"All the girls have dates, don't they?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Except for the girl who I cancelled with." Oliver said, looking down at his shoes.

Jackson put his arm around him again as if he was going to share a big secret with him on the brotherhood of guys that actually have dates to the school dance. "Uh... ya figure?" he took his arm up and slapped him in the back of the head.

"Ow!"

"Then go on and run boy! Get back on that computer and get your dorky little date for the school dance!" Jackson pushed him away and Oliver did what he said and started running, not quite sure why he was obeying Jackson so quickly.

Jackson shook his head as Oliver retreated. "Idiot." he said simply and went back in the direction of the classrooms.

But what he didn't notice was the rustling of leaves as Rico came out of the bushes, laughing to himself.

* * *

_What is Rico up to? And the boy sure likes his pie. Hee hee. And guess what, awesome readers. The dance is getting closer!_

**jade-kwl-name-eva and Jesus.Lives**


	11. Wednesday, 2 Days To Go

**Partners In Crime**

**Wednesday**

Lilly tossed and turned in her bed until morning. It was the most horrible thing to admit that falling for your best friend's brother, and partner in crime in the elaborate plot to get the two of them together, wasn't part of the plan.

"Urgh." She got up and the next thing she knew it was another day, in class with hopefully brighter prospects on the horizon.

"What's got into you?" Miley asked as Lilly banged her head against her locker.

"Nothin', just need a wake up call, that's all." Lilly put on her perkiness. "So... hear from that guy yet?"

"Yep. We're back on. Turns out he was just a little scared it would look dumb to his friends if it turned out he was using the internet to score himself a date for the dance."

"What's this I hear?" The two girls turned around to see Rico standing behind them. "You got dumped?"

"No, I didn't. He asked me out again." Miley said. Rico looked at Lilly and grinned slowly.

"What, on an internet dating service?" He asked.

"That's none of your business." Miley said and turned to her locker. Lilly glared at Rico.

"I think I might know who you're date is."

Miley slowly turned around to face him while Lilly's eyes went wide. How could he figure that out?

He might have been bluffing.

"You think I care?" Miley asked him, knowing that he'd probably want something in exchange for this information. "Whatever you know, it can't possibly be worth it."

Lilly wanted to high-five her at that point. That's telling him.

"Fine, be that way." He said, turning on his heel to walk away. "But it's not my fault if you end up with some loser." And he walked away.

Lilly looked at Miley, who watched Rico walk off with a worried look on her face. "He's not going to be a loser. I'll promise you that."

"Yeah." Miley said. "But… what if he's right? What if this guy isn't what he says he is?"

"And what if he is?" Lilly asked, looking Miley in the eye. "You never know if you don't try."

"Yeah." Miley said. "And it's not as if it's going to be someone like Oliver."

"Heh, yeah." Lilly said, laughing. "Well, I'm going now. I'll see you later."

Miley nodded and Lilly walked off down the hallway. She had to thank Jackson for helping her. She stopped when she saw him and Chloe together in the cafeteria. She was laughing at something he said and he was smiling at her. This could be the happiest he's ever been…

"I'm not the only one who isn't going to the dance with the person they like." Rico said, shaking his head at the two.

"Are you stalking me or something?" Lilly asked.

"No, I'm asking you one last time, give me this information about Miley and then maybe I'll help you with your Jackson problem." He said.

"You're on your own Rico, I set them up," Lilly said, indicating the two love birds, "And Miley with her date. I'm not helping you."

"Fine!" Rico shouted back at her. He knew what he had to do to get Miley to be his, pose as her Internet match.

Miley would be none the wiser and now he knew who her internet match was, it was going to be even easier to find pose as him. He just had to think of stupid things Oliver would say to get a girl to like him online and hide it from his best friends.

OK. So it was harder than he thought. But Rico could do it. He was Rico after all.

"Hey Lilly!" Chloe was calling out to her from across the cafeteria and Lilly cringed. She wasn't the only one. Jackson was hiding his face hoping that Lilly wasn't going to come over. He had Rico bothering him and Oliver to deal with, he didn't need anyone else from her grade proving that he associated with mere children. Well... Lilly wasn't a child, but Jackson was prone to being over-dramatic.

Lilly came up to them. "Hi. Sorry, didn't want to interrupt you before."

"No problem." Chloe grinned, "You want to sit with us?"

"What are you kidding?" Jackson asked, looking at his girlfriend with his face paling. Didn't she know the social code of this school?

"What's wrong? I thought she was your friend?" Chloe asked.

"She's my little sister's friend and she's a freshman." Jackson said.

"So? She's been with us the whole week." Chloe said.

"The whole week?" He asked frowning. Lilly felt uncomfortable standing there; it was obvious Jackson didn't want to be seen with her.

"Never mind, I've got to go to class now anyway." She said and walked off.

"Jackson, what is wrong with you? How can you be so mean to her? Especially since it's almost been a whole week since you saved her life!" Chloe said, picking up her bag and walking off.

"Saving her life?" Jackson said, frowning. It was all coming back to him, Lilly falling off her board, giving her the kiss of life, Chloe hugging him…

Wait, he kissed her?

_Dang it Jackson_! He mentally scolded himself. He was so worried about her he didn't even think about the contact they'd shared. But it was nothing right? Nothing Miley or Oliver wouldn't have done for her.

But the entire week Lilly and himself had been hanging out like it was the most natural thing in the world, even if half the time she ended up being a third wheel.

_Dang it, Jackson!_ He told himself again, thinking that he should make it up to her. Lilly helped him get together with a really great girl and then yesterday he was thinking about ditching the whole plan. Well now not only was he going to go through with the whole plan, he was going to have to get something special for Lilly too.

Maybe he should get her something for the dance…

"But what would she want?" He asked out loud. And there was only one person who would know what…

-----

"Miles!" Jackson yelled and honked the horn of his car. Miley turned and stood still as Jackson pulled up next to the sidewalk. "Want a lift home?"

"Where is Chloe?" Miley asked.

"She's gone to the skate park with some of her friends."

"Then why do you want to give me a lift home?" Miley asked.

"This is a once in a life time opportunity, going once, going twice…"

"Ok, I'll come." Miley said, opening the passenger door and getting in. Jackson smiled at her and soon the two of them were on the road, headed for the mall.

"Have you forgotten where we live?" Miley asked.

"No, I just have to get something for someone. And I need your help."

"Are my ears deceiving me? Is Jackson Stewart actually asking his sister for help?"

"Ha ha." Jackson said, looking at her quickly. "I want to get something for a girl."

"Chloe?"

"No, someone else."

"Why are we going shopping to buy something for a girl who is not your girlfriend?" Miley asked, looking at him as if he'd well and truly gone insane this time.

Jackson knew that if he told her it was Lilly that Miley's ideas about his sanity would be confirmed. First he saved her life and then buy her a gift for no reason? (Well, no reason that Miley knew about). Out of the question!

"I know other girls. Other girls that I'd need to buy something for..." He concentrated on the road, but felt a hand on his arm the next moment.

"Gee Jackson, that's really sweet. It'd be real nice if you got me something that I picked out this year for my birthday."

"Hey. Who said it's for you?"

"Puh-lease. Other girls? Jackson, the only other girl's you see are Lilly, Aunt Dolly and Mamaw and I don't think you're getting something for one of them when you can't even buy your own sister a decent birthday present!"

"You don't know that!"

"Jackson, sadly... I know more about your life than I want to and if there were any other girl's I would know about it."

"You don't know about Monique from my gym class. It could be her."

"Why would you be buying something for some girl in your gym class?"

Jackson sighed and pulled up the car at the mall. "Just help me?" And then he attempted the puppy dog pout.

"If I help you, will you promise never to do that again?" Miley asked, pointing to his face.

"Promise."

"Then let's go shopping." Miley said and got out the car. Jackson followed her into the mall and into a perfume shop.

"Perfume? I don't think she'll like that." Jackson said.

"Well, unless you tell me who she is, you follow my orders. Got it?" Miley asked. Jackson nodded and trailed behind his sister as she looked at the perfumes.

"Are you looking for a specific one?" He asked, putting his hands in his pockets.

"Yes, so shut up." Miley said. She then found what she was looking for and showed it to Jackson. "Smell this." She squirted some into the air and Jackson sniffed it and started gagging.

"No." He said shaking his head. "Miles, I'm not sure I'll be able to afford this. Maybe something else?"

"Fine." Miley said and put it down, leaving the shop. She then walked into a clothing shop and started looking through all the tops and skirts. "Do you know what size she is?"

"Uh…No, not really." He said.

"You aren't going to make this easy for me, are you?"

"I don't know, alright! Your size!" He thought maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe he should just get Lilly a card to say how much he owed her.

"I knew it was for me." Miley responded with a tight-lipped smile.

"OK, fine, Miles. You win. It's for you. Now just pick what you'd want so I can get it and go home!"

She pulled him along to a dress shop. "Sweet niblets." he rolled his eyes. This was a bad idea. This was a very bad idea. Maybe he could call Oliver on the phone when Miley wasn't looking to come and cover for him. He gets forced to go shopping with Miley all the time.

He cringed. _You're doing this for Lilly. You're doing this for Lilly. You're doing this for Lilly._ He kept chanting in his mind. _You're doing this for..._

Wait. He was doing this for Lilly. He was doing something for a girl that wasn't his girlfriend and he couldn't even tell Miley about it to prove that he wasn't a creep. Totally sucked.

Miley was holding up a dress to her body. Jackson shook his head sadly. The look on Lilly's face had better be worth this.

"I think maybe this dress." Miley said, looking at Jackson. "You like this?"

"Uh… yes?" He said. Miley rolled her eyes and handed the dress to him.

"I'll take it." She said. Jackson sighed and walked over to the cash register while Miley continued looking around the shop.

"Would Lilly actually like this dress?" Jackson asked himself. Truth was, he had no idea. Plus Miley thought it was for her, so he had to just drop it in the parking lot again.

"Next." The clerk said. Jackson put the dress down and got his wallet out. The clerk rung the dress up and his jaw dropped. This dress was expensive…

Jackson handed over his card and charged it. He never used it anyway; this was the first time since his dad gave it to him last year. And he'd be proud to learn that he hadn't lost it…

"Have a nice day." The clerk said in a bored voice. Jackson picked up the bag and walked back over to Miley, handing her the bag.

"Why are you handing it over to me?" She asked.

"Because I said I was buying it for you." Jackson said.

"But I've got dresses. You can give it to Lilly if you want." Miley said and grinned.

"Miley…" Jackson said and she ran out of the shop, him right behind her. "You've got now where to go except my car!"

"Thought you wanted to get home."

He shook his head for the fifth time that afternoon and got in the car. Why did she say that he could give it to Lilly. He raised an eyebrow. "Why would I give it to Lilly?"

"I don't know. You've been spending more time with her. At the skate park, looking for girls. Surfing with your girlfriend and Lilly. Are you sure she's not chaperoning you on dates?"

"Oh. Very funny, little sis. You want a ride home or would you rather I leave you here for YOUR chaperone to come and bring you home?"

Miley said nothing more as she sat beside him on the way home. She knew she'd struck a nerve though. Why was Lilly spending so much time with Jackson and his girlfriend? If she was friends with his girlfriend, then Miley would know... right?

* * *

_The dance is getting closer... yes! That's all I got to say. Review, and if you don't know what to say, talk about Phineas and Ferb if you're watching it. (I just wanna know what you think about it.)_

**jade-kwl-name-eva and Jesus.Lives**


	12. Thursday, 1 Day To Go

**Partners In Crime**

**Thursday**

"One more day and then I meet my match." Miley said to Lilly as they entered the classroom.

"I know! I'm so excited for you." Lilly said. Just one more day and then she doesn't have to worry about anything going wrong and her two friends not ending up together.

"But I'm worried about Oliver." Miley admitted. "He hasn't been that lucky with the girls and I'm worried about the girl hurting him."

"Don't worry about him, he'll be fine. So, how are you two meeting?" Lilly asked, taking her normal seat. Miley sat in the chair behind her.

"We're meeting in the center of the gym at 9 o'clock." Miley said.

"Well that's not exactly going to make it obvious. Everyone's going to be at the center of the gym at 9 o'clock."

"But this way it'll be dark and crowded, so if I get stood up it won't feel so bad."

"It'll go fine. I promise."

"Crazy girl with her cap backwards say what?" Miley asked taking Lilly's cap off her head and putting it around the right way, to which Lilly just brought it back over to the side.

"It's just that I'll promise to be here for you, if it doesn't."

"Girl. You've been acting weird lately. I think we need to talk."

"I don't think so. It's just this dance... has everybody acting a little crazy."

"Are you replacing me?"

"Huh?"

"Are you replacing me with Jackson's girlfriend?" Miley repeated.

"Of course not, Miley!" Lilly gave her a hug. "Why would you think that?"

"You've been spending a lot of time with them this week and not with me." Miley looked to the floor, "I guess I just got a little jealous. Ridiculous, huh?"

"Not at all!" Lilly said squeezing her shoulders. "You're my best friend Miley. Nothing's going to change that."

Miley smiled at her. "Thanks. It's always good to hear it."

"Hello ladies." Rico said as he came into the classroom.

"Rico." Miley said. She watched him as he walked to the front and took his usual seat. He turned around to look at the two girls and gave Miley a wink. "I think there's something that boy isn't telling me."

"Forget him." Lilly said. The bell rang then and soon Oliver made his way into the classroom, sitting in front of Lilly. He didn't turn around in his seat to talk to them; instead he started to play with his pencil.

"Oliver, are you all right?" Lilly asked, leaning forwards in her seat.

"Yeah, never been better. Why do you ask?"

"Are you nervous?"

"Yeah, pretty much. My date is tomorrow." He said.

"Don't worry lover boy, Lilly and I will help you." Miley said.

"And don't forget your promise." Oliver said to her as he turned around in his seat. Lilly turned in her seat to face Miley.

"What promise? What is he talking about?"

"I'll fill you in later." Miley said as their teacher entered the classroom.

"Oh, you'd so better" Lilly muttered and turned to the board, afraid that her friends were keeping secrets from her... well... and a little bit paranoid as well.

Just a little bit.

As she chewed on her pencil she thought back to how this all started and now she was wondering if it was a bad idea - her being a third wheel when her friends got together, being a fifth wheel if Jackson and Chloe ever joined them.

Alright... that was never really going to happen except for holidays and family events, but Lilly could expect the worst if she wanted to? Right?

It was just then when a note slid over to her desk. 'I want to know where they're meeting, or I'm telling Miley right now.' it said. She looked around and Rico blew her a kiss.

Rico. That silly, silly little boy.

'No way, again, it's your word against mine, her best friend.' Lilly wrote back and threw it back at Rico. He just shook his head and quickly scribbled something down on the piece of paper, passing it back to Lilly.

'Fine, be that way, but what's stopping me from telling the whole school?' Lilly paled after she read that and looked up and saw Rico's smirk. He had her and he knew it.

'They're meeting in the gym, 9 o'clock.' Lilly wrote back, handing it back to the little devil, glaring at him. Rico nodded and then turned back to pay attention in class. Lilly, on the other hand, couldn't concentrate at all. She started playing with her pencil as she thought about the dance and what she would be doing, all alone.

All alone. All by her little lonesome. Standing there in her best outfit. Waiting for some boy to come along and sweep her off her feet. Then realizing that Jackson would never come because she'd already set him up with someone for the dance! She dropped her pencil as it was digging into her hand.

She didn't know how long she was going to last without telling someone herself about her feelings... but she was starting to think that she wasn't even going to the dance.

"Lilly…" Miley waved a hand in front of her friends face. The lesson was over now, but Lilly was looking out into the distance, a neutral look on her face. Miley then prodded her in the shoulder, but she didn't move. She sighed and pushed her friend off the seat.

"Ow." Lilly said, looking up at Miley.

"You were ignoring me." Miley stated, putting her hand out to help her up. Lilly took it and packed her books away into her bag.

"I was thinking. Never disrupt a thinker." Lilly said as the two of them walked out of the class.

"You're a thinker?" Miley asked.

"It's Oliver who you should be surprised at if he says that."

"You're right." Miley said as the walked towards their next class. They passed by Jackson and Chloe. Jackson looked over at her and smiled, but Lilly looked away quickly and carried on walking.

"Wow. Has the world gone nuts or did Jackson just acknowledge us at school?" Miley said a moment later.

"Huh?" Lilly replied, "I didn't notice."

Miley stopped in the hallway and stared at her, mouth gaping. "You're thinking about a boy, aren't you?"

"Me?" Lilly squeaked. "I'm not thinking about anything!"

"You've had a goofy look on your face all day, Lils. I think I know when there's a boy on your mind. So now who is it? Is it that new boy Jeffery? Or is it one of Matt's friends? Or even that senior boy that looked your way this morning?"

"Huh? A senior looked my way!"

"Get with the program Lilly! There's a dance about to happen and I've been too worried about my date! Now who are we going to get you to go with?

"Uh…someone." Lilly said.

"Someone?"

"Yeah."

"Do I know this someone?" Miley asked as they stopped outside their next classroom.

"Nope. Met him at the skate park. He doesn't go to this school." Lilly said.

"I don't believe you." Miley said.

"Fine. But I might not go with him in the end." Lilly said, walking past her.

"Lilly…" Miley whined, sitting in her seat. "You have to go, be my support team!"

"Miley, we've spoken about this. You'll be fine."

Miley harrumphed and turned her back on her. "Be that way."

------

Jackson sat down on the couch, looking at a bag that had the dress in it. It was laughing at him, he was sure of that. Why? Because he just couldn't bring himself to give it to Lilly.

"Hey Jackson." Miley said as she walked through the front door of the house. She looked over at her brother who was glaring at the bag. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing." Jackson said, looking back at her. Miley sighed and picked the bag up, holding it in front of his face.

"Give it to Chloe or Lilly soon or else I will take it back." Miley said, hugging the bag to her chest.

"Take it then."

"Really?!"

"Wait, no!" Jackson said after realizing what he did. "I'm still thinking about it…"

"Give it to Lilly, she needs something like this to cheer her up." Miley said, throwing the bag at him.

"Why? What's wrong with her?"

"Why do you care? You aren't her best friend." Miley said as she walked up the stairs to her room.

"But I want to be." Jackson muttered to himself, putting the bag back on the table. "You're laughing at me, aren't you?"

"Son…" Robby Ray said as he walked over to Jackson. He heard the whole conversation between his two kids. "The plastic bag can't laugh."

"But it's laughing at me!" Jackson exclaimed, jumping off the couch and pointing at it.

"And everyone wonders why I worry about him." Robby Ray said to himself. "Jackson, why don't you just take your sister's advice and give the dress to the girl? Maybe then the bag will stop laughing at you."

"Yeah, you're right." Jackson said, smiling, but he quickly looked at the bag. "But that'll happen later, because Jackson is on a mission."

Robby Ray shook his head as he watched his son run up the stairs. Looked like the old Jackson was coming back slowly. But he then had to wonder how long his relationship with Chloe would last then.

* * *

_Tee hee... the bag was laughing at Jackson... that's almost as bad as the pelicans laughing at him... with their little pelican laughs... But seems like the Jacksonator is returning? But did he ever leave?_

**jade-kwl-name-eva and Jesus.Lives**


	13. Friday, Day of the Dance

**Partners In Crime**

**Friday**

"Well, I'll have you know Miley, I decided to take your little advice yesterday. The dress is Lilly's." Jackson said as he came down for breakfast in the morning.

"Good. Tell her it was my idea though. Don't want her dying in shock from you actually giving her something."

Jackson pretended that he was laughing for a second and then grabbed the bread to make toast.

Miley ran upstairs to check the Internet dating site. She got a letter from Mike3, telling her he couldn't wait to meet her that night. Miley smiled to herself and wrote back to him.

She just couldn't wait for the dance. She was going to meet her dream guy. Lilly was going to go with her for moral support. Nothing could go wrong in Miley's world….

"What's this?" Lilly asked as Jackson shoved a package into her hands.

"It's for you." he replied with a smile.

She raised an eyebrow, "Why?"

He sighed. "Chloe made me realize I was being stupid the other day by not counting you as my friend to... and after everything that happened, the other day... I realized that if... if..."

He had a hard time getting the words out. Lilly decided to make it easy for him. "Yeah, I know Jackson."

"I know Miley and Oliver would probably miss ya more, but..."

She gave him a quick hug. "This really wasn't necessary though."

"Yes. It was. And this way you won't ask me for anything else. Like babysitting Miley and Oliver on a date." he screwed up his nose at the thought.

She grinned and opened the package, gasping when it revealed the dress. "You shouldn't have. You really, really shouldn't have."

"This way you'll have something to wear for the dance."

Her face was still filled with wonder, it didn't fade as she looked up and punched him on the arm. "Jackson!"

His hand went straight to his arm to rub it gingerly. "Ow."

"You shouldn't have!" She repeated, but held the dress up to herself. Seeing that light in her eye was worth it after all, Jackson realized, and then chided himself mentally yet again. _You have a girlfriend. You have a girlfriend. You have a girlfriend._ Since when had that ever stopped him before?

"Well, say thanks to Chloe."

"And to Miley, she picked it out."

He felt a chill go through his body as she hugged him again. "Come to the dance with me." he blurted out, as she released him.

"Aren't you going with Chloe?"

He'd backed himself into a corner now. "Uh. Of course. She's my girlfriend. We are most certainly going to the dance together."

She shook her head. "You should stop hanging out with Oliver. It's making you stupider."

He laughed. "Yeah. Soon as I can get away from him I will."

Lilly frowned. The dress was beautiful but this was horrible. She wanted to forget everything she felt about Jackson and this irrational possessiveness. But what he was doing was just making her like him more. She knew he could be a nice guy when he tried to be. But did he have to try to be now? It was all she could do not to blurt out what she wanted was thinking about him.

"Thanks Jackson" she repeated instead. "Chloe is more lucky than she realizes."

"She is?" He asked, frowning.

"She's got you as a boyfriend." Lilly said. Jackson smiled slightly. This would be a perfect picture moment for them. But if only Jackson didn't have a girlfriend.

"Come on Lilly, we have to get to school now!" Miley said, running down the stairs and dragging Lilly out the door.

"Wait!" Jackson called out to them, running out the door. "Don't you want another lift to school?"

"Ok, but this is the last time." Miley said, walking towards his car. "Because I'm starting to worry about you."

"You're my sister and there's a dance tonight." Jackson said as he started the car. Lilly and Miley both sat in the back this time.

"Ok." Miley said. The three then sat in silence as they drove towards their school.

Lilly didn't like being in his car with him anymore. She just felt weird today, being around Jackson and all. She started to twirl her fingers and then looked over Miley, who had a wide smile on her face. She must've been on cloud nine just thinking about tonight.

"So Lilly, are you coming home with me today?" Miley asked. "So we can get ready together?"

"Uh, yeah. Sure." Lilly said and then looked out the window. She sighed with relief when the pulled into the parking lot of Seaview High. Once the car parked, Lilly quickly opened her door, said thanks to Jackson and ran inside.

"What's wrong with her?" Miley asked. Jackson shook his head and locked his car while Miley went after Lilly. He didn't notice the plastic the had fallen off the seat and onto the floor…

-----

"What is wrong with her?"

"I don't know…"

"You think she put too much sugar in her cereal again?" Oliver asked, looking at Miley.

"I don't think so, she isn't over excited." Miley said, looking back at him. "But I think its boy troubles. I don't even know who she is going with to the dance!"

"And that's bad because…"

"We're best friends, we tell each other everything." Miley sighed. "Lately I think you've been more of a friend to me then Lilly. She's been hanging with Jackson and his girlfriend, Chloe."

"Oh, the surfer girl." Oliver said, nodding his head in understanding. "She reminds me of Lilly."

"That's what I said to him! But he didn't listen." Miley looked over at Lilly who was on playing around with her lunch. "You don't think…"

"What?"

"That Lilly might like Jackson?" Miley asked, a worried look on her face.

"Jackson?" Oliver scrunched up his nose, thinking about it. He looked at Lilly and then across the cafeteria at Jackson. "I don't know, I'm not good with these things."

"I thought you were Smoken' Oken, ladies expert." Miley said, smiling at him.

"No, I'm just Smoken' Oken. It's the ladies who come to me, wanting to ride on the Ollie Trolley." Oliver said, looking cocky.

"Yeah, well I then hope your date likes you."

"Oh, she will." He said before getting up from the table and walking away. Miley then looked back at Lilly who was sitting on her own. Miley and Oliver had asked her to sit with them, but she ignored them and sat at her own table.

Miley got up from her table and walked towards Lilly. She stood over her friend who was busy poking her French fries, picking them up, inspecting them, then throwing them back onto the plate. "Ok, what are you doing."

"They're cold." Lilly said, looking up at her.

"That's because it's been twenty minutes since you got them." Miley said, sliding into the empty seat next to Lilly. "Now tell me what is on your mind."

"Uh…" Lilly went blank, trying to think of something. Nothing came, so she went with the truth. "Ok, I like this guy, but it doesn't seem like he likes me. He's got a girlfriend and I don't know if I'd be better then her." Ok, so she left out who she was talking about.

"Ok, so who's the guy? It can't be Oliver; he doesn't have a girlfriend at all. Let's see, who could he be?" Miley said, scanning the cafeteria. Lilly watched, as Miley looked past Jackson and Chloe. She sighed and pushed her try of fries away from her.

"Never mind, I'm all better now. We've got an hour left of school and then its time to get ready for the dance." Lilly said, picking up her bag and standing up. Miley followed her and together the two walked out of the cafeteria and right past Jackson.

* * *

_Were you hoping for the dance? Sorry guys, that's next chapter! Mwahahaha... And a message from the two of us... once this is over, Jesus.Lives will be putting up Don't Stop Until You Get Kicked Out of Home, which we've teamed up to write too. (Man, my author notes are short... I've suddenly got nothing to say... weird.)_

**jade-kwl-name-eva and Jesus.Lives**


	14. Before the Dance

_Sorry guys, I lied. But now it's the dance, yay!_

**Partners In Crime**

**Before the Dance  
**

"Here." Jackson said, handing over a walkie-talkie to her. "So we'll be able to keep an eye on the two lovebirds."

Lilly took it and tried to remain interested in what was on the TV screen. "What's our code word?"

"Code word? Let me think... how about 'Miley smells?'"

Lilly smirked, "It has to be to do with the operation. How about 'partners in crime'?"

Jackson stuck out a hand, "Well, put it here partner." She shook it.

Miley came back down at that very moment. "Lilly, are you sure you're not going to be there? Not even as moral support for your _best friend_?" She emphasized the last two words.

"Wait. Lilly's not going to the dance?"

"Well, I'm not dressed." She explained to Jackson matter-of-factly.

"But I thought we were partners!" he whined.

"Say what?" asked Miley quickly catching his words.

"I promised him a dance." Lilly quickly covered for him, giving him the evil eye.

"Oh." This seemed to be a good enough explanation for Miley, "Last chance. I'm sure there'll be plenty of dateless guys that would love it if you came."

"I'm comfortable."

"And your best friend is going to meet a mystery date... alone."

"Oliver will be there."

"Yeah, thanks for reminding me. He's probably be following his date around like a puppy dog all night."

Lilly shrugged and purposely avoided looking at Jackson when she said this.

------

Miley entered the gym by herself, looking around for a familiar face. She spotted Amber and Ashley and went in the other direction. She had time before it was 9 o'clock, time to look for Oliver then.

"Hey Miley." Sarah said as she passed by.

"Hi Sarah." Miley said, still looking around the gym. "Have you seen Oliver?"

"Nope." She said and then a guy that Miley didn't recognise came up and handed Sarah a glass of punch. Guessing that was her date, Miley moved away and into the centre of the gym.

"What's the time?" She asked, looking around. 2 minutes till 9, she had some time.

"Hey." She heard a male voice say behind her. She turned around and saw Rico standing there.

"Are you sure you aren't stalking me?" She asked.

"No, because I'm your date." He said. Miley burst out laughing.

"There is no way you are my date."

"Well then why else would I be standing in the middle of the gym?" Rico asked.

"What time was I supposed to meet my date here?" Miley asked.

"9 o'clock, but I couldn't wait any longer." Rico said and grabbed her hand. "Now how about we dance?"

"Whoa, slow down there short stuff." Miley said. She had to get out of this, turned out her date was a disaster! "I'm not sure you're my date. What's my username on the site?"

"Uh…" Rico's plan was failing. He didn't get her username!

Miley sighed with relief, it wasn't Rico. "Sorry, but you're not my date."

"But why go on some stupid online dating service to find a guy when you could've gone with me?" Rico asked. Miley looked down at his sad face. There was the possibility that he was acting, but…

"Rico, tell you what. Later tonight I'll dance with you, but only one song. And don't try to kiss me again." Miley said, going down to his level to look him in the eyes. "Got it?"

"Fine." He said, moving away from Miley. "Good luck with your date!"

"Thanks… I think?" Was he being serious or sarcastic? She then sighed and turned a bit and saw Oliver make his way towards her, smiling.

"Hey Oliver, found your girl yet?" Miley asked.

"No, still waiting for her to show up. How about you?"

"No, my guy isn't here yet." Miley said. Then both of them watched the clock as its hand slowly moved until it chimed nine o'clock. The two then looked around, waiting to see if their dates would appear, but no one was walking towards them.

"Uh, can't you go wait for her somewhere else?" Miley asked.

"No, I arranged to meet her in the centre of the gym…"

"At nine o'clock?" Miley asked, finishing his sentence.

"Hannah101?" Oliver asked.

"Mike3?" Miley asked, her eyes going wide. She had been set up with Oliver? The guy she had been flirting with all week had been Oliver?

"This is weird." He said, breaking the silence. Miley just nodded her head, just staring at him. He looked nervous and rubbed the back of his head, messing up his long hair. Miley slowly smiled, at least he was better then Rico.

------

"'Partner in crime' come in? Hello? 'Partner in crime?'"

Chloe took her hands off Jackson. "Is that you?"

"Uhh-heh. Yeah. One second." Jackson said sheepishly, taking the walkie-talkie out of his pants and hissing "What?" into it loudly.

"Any updates on Miley and Oliver?"

"Yeah, I'm kind of busy right now."

"You can't leave me in the lurch. I'm not there! You're supposed to be my eyes!" She whined to him.

"Yeah," he put on his best apathetic voice, "Don't care."

"Jackson!"

"I said good day!" he yelled impatiently and threw the walkie-talkie out into the bushes outside.

"No you didn't." Lilly answered him, giving the walkie-talkie a weird look. "Jackson! Pick up!" Robbie Ray came out into the living room as Lilly kept talking into the walkie-talkie. "Jackson! I'm not kidding."

"Some partner, huh?" Robbie Ray told her.

She spun around, "You knew?"

"About the plan to get Miley and Oliver together? Yeah." He answered, nodding his head. "Jackson might have thrown a few hints in the air."

"Now I don't even know what happened because Jackson has ditched the plan."

"Well, now. You could have gone to the dance and seen for yourself."

Lilly frowned. "I'd rather hear about it from Jackson."

"Now there Lilly. Any particular reason why you're hiding out in our living room rather than going and being with your friends tonight?" Robbie Ray came and sat down beside Lilly. Although he loved her like his own daughter, he was really hoping she wasn't going to cry when Miley wasn't around to help him out.

"Of course not." she bluffed, handing Robbie Ray her bowl of popcorn.

"So you've got nothing to tell me about the boy that you're trying to avoid by sitting here watching old movies?"

Lilly sighed deeply. "It's actually a girl, Mr S."

Robbie Ray clearly wasn't expecting that answer. "You're telling me this isn't about a boy?"

"Well, it is. It's the girlfriend of a boy."

"Now why don't you go on there and stand up to her." He was hopeful that she'd leave the TV to the care of him for the night now that his kids were out.

"I set them up."

"Oh." Robbie Ray said thoughtfully, putting a handful of popcorn into his mouth. "So how about this movie?"

Lilly looked at him with a puppy dog look, her bottom lip quivering. "Sweet niblets." Robbie Ray was afraid he'd said the wrong thing again and was going to make her cry. "You've got no reason not to go after him Lilly."

"Oh, yeah?" she scoffed, thinking of all the billions of reasons why Jackson was the wrong guy to go for, "You think?"

"Unless there's something you're not telling me."

She hesitated. Robbie Ray probably wouldn't tell Miley unless she wanted him to. He'd probably keep it from Jackson too... but it was just too weird.

"Well..."

"Go on." He urged, eating more popcorn.

"The guy is... really close to Miley and probably the worst choice that I could make..."

"Don't tell me it's Oliver." Robbie Ray groaned, expecting to hear the worst outcome of this dilemma and something that might cause another fight between his daughter and her best friend. Lilly burst out laughing.

"I'll take that as a no." he answered her. "But then who else?" She could tell his mind was reeling over the slim, slim possibilities. "No. Can't be." He finally said resolvedly.

She blushed. He'd had to have come up with the right answer. He looked at her for confirmation that it wasn't who he was thinking of, she just bit her lip.

"Wo-e!" He slapped his knee, "Well how about that? Lil' Lillykins and mah boy. My own flesh and blood." He wiped away a fake tear of emotion

"Mr Stewart, please don't ever call me that again."

"Oh, right." Robbie Ray straightened himself out again. "So Jackson, huh? And I'm willing to bet he has no clue?"

"Well, it IS Jackson." she emphasised.

"There's still no reason why you shouldn't go to the dance and be there for Miley and Oliver, though."

"I didn't want to embarrass myself. What if I said something to Jackson? What if I told Miley?"

"But what good is it doing sitting in front of the TV with me for the night hoping that it'll go away?"

"You think it will?" Lilly asked, hope in her voice.

Robbie Ray shook his head. "I think it's not doing any good to anyone keeping it a secret, especially not to you."

"So what do I do?"

"What would 'Lola' do?"

"Well..." she winced, "Lola's not exactly 'Miss Confident'."

"Of course she is. Why, she's met all sorts of celebrities without fainting."

"But Lilly would rather stick her hair in a blender than admit she has feelings for her best friend's brother."

"Lilly's going to have to come right out with those feelings eventually if she ever wants things to be honest between her and her friends."

"I guess." she conceded and got up from the couch.

"You seriously like Jackson?" Robbie Ray asked again.

"Urgh. I'm going to the dance." She was about to leave but then sat down again and put her arms around Robbie Ray. "Thanks for the talk, Mr S."

Robbie Ray was flustered. He really didn't get how to help out girls, especially with boy problems, but he guessed that he did something right.

"You go git him, tiger!" he called to her, licking his fingers and sticking them back in the bowl, then handling the remote with the same grubby fingers. He heard the door close and he spread out on the couch. "Ah... alone at last."

* * *

_Robby Ray can now have some Robby Ray time! And I'm guessing that this is, yet again, not the chapter you were hoping for, huh? Still haven't seen the dance, besides the little 'Moliver' moment. Please don't hate us, it's coming, the Lackson is on it's way..._

**jade-kwl-name-eva and Jesus.Lives**


	15. Dance, Part 1

_Still not what you want... that'll be the last chapter... or second to last chapter... can't remember now..._

**Partners In Crime**

**The Dance, Part 1  
**

Lilly stopped her skateboard and picked it up, looking at the front entrance of the school. Lights were flashing as some people went back inside and the loud music could be heard. She thought of Jackson, slow dancing with Chloe, making the whole scene all romantic…

"Snap out of it!" She said, hitting her cheek. She made her way towards the school and felt very out of it. All the girls standing around her were wearing dresses, had make up on and had their hair done. How did Lilly look? Like she always did, hair tied back and stuffed into a cap, jeans, a shirt and trainers.

"I shouldn't have come. I should leave…" She muttered to herself, but she just had to see how Miley and Oliver were doing! She managed to get into the gym and stay close to the wall, hoping no one would recognize her and point her out.

"Hey Toots." came a sly voice to her right. She breathed a sigh of relief and crouched down to Rico.

"Have you seen Miley and Oliver?" she hissed.

"Huh? You'll have to say that a bit closer." Rico indicated to his ear. Lilly got closer to him and he flung his arms around her attempting to slow dance with her. She shook him off.

"I'm just trying to find Miley and Oliver!" Lilly cried out, deeply annoyed at how this night was going.

"Oh, they're in the centre of the dance floor." Rico said, waving his hand behind him. Lilly stood up and looked for them. She saw the two of them standing underneath the lights, talking to each other. Then Miley put her arms around Oliver's neck and he wrapped his arms around her waist.

"Thanks Rico." Lilly looked down at him and saw him sulking. "What's wrong?"

"That I actually let the girls of my dreams go off with… Oken." Rico said. For one brief moment, she felt sorry for him. This could be once in a lifetime experience, so she decided to make the most of it.

"I'll dance with you then." Lilly offered.

"Oh yeah... I've still got it." Rico replied cockily and grabbed her hand, taking her out further away from the wall. Lilly was a little nervous that people would see her A. dressed how she always dresses and B. dancing with Rico... and that those people might be Amber and Ashley so she steered Rico towards the darkest corner.

"You're going to have 'it' a lot worse if you don't hide me," she threatened as he pressed himself against her and she shuddered inwardly. It was a lame threat, but the best she could think of when one of her eyes was darting around the dance floor hoping not to see Jackson with his date.

"Who are you looking for?" Rico asked.

"No one. I'm not looking for or avoiding anyone." Lilly said and laughed feebly. Rico didn't buy it and tried his best to try and get Lilly back towards the centre of the dance floor - no one can stop Rico from doing anything.

"Rico, no!" Lilly said and tried to push him back towards the shadows. _I'm so regretting this…_ she thought to herself.

"Why can't I show you off?" He asked and put on a fake sad face.

"Because you don't want to." Lilly said and tried once again to move away from everyone else, but tripped over her own feet and knocked into someone, sending them towards the ground. "Sorry."

"No, it's ok." The girl said and turned to face her. "Lilly? What are you doing here?"

"Uh, hey Miley." Lilly said, looking at her two best friends, as Oliver had reached out his hand to lift Miley back up from the ground. "I just couldn't resist the party?"

"What is going on?" Miley asked, looking down at Rico. "Is he your date now?"

"No, I was just dancing with him." Lilly said. "But I think I should go then. You two have fun."

Miley then looked at Oliver who stood next to her. "Uh, Lilly? Before you go, can we talk with you?"

"Uh…" Lilly was about to agree, hoping that maybe Miley will admit that the two of them were (finally) going out. Or maybe they wanted to say they didn't like her (or even each other) and crush her spirits? At the way things were going tonight, that was most viable option…

But she couldn't stick around, because she spotted Jackson and Chloe slow dancing to the song that was playing. Her eyes went wide and she looked around quickly for the exit. Where was it? She knew this school like the back of her hand, but when she really needed to get out of it, she couldn't even find the exit!

"Lilly? You OK?" Miley asked, waving a hand in Lilly's face.

"I'm sorry Miley, but I have to leave. I'll see you after the dance." Lilly said and then turned and ran. Rico looked confused at what had transpired and slowly made his way away from them.

Jackson, on the other side of the gym, happened to look up and spotted his sister talking with Lilly. He felt a jolt in his stomach. _She's here! She came!_

He thought she'd be wearing the dress he gave her, but she wasn't. She was still in her clothes she wore before he left to come to the dance. He watched as she ran out of the gym as the next song started to play.

"Hold that thought." Jackson placed a finger to Chloe's lips just as she grabbed him to start dancing to the next song. He exited the gym, scanning the sparse groups of people outside for her.

"Lilly!" He called, as he ran and grabbed her shoulder. "Oops!" It wasn't Lilly. Just another girl with blond hair.

"Lilly!" He was almost out of breath when he grabbed her shoulder, this time checking the clothing and the cap. This had to be her! She spun around.

"What?" she barked at him impatiently.

"You came." He said. "I thought you said you weren't."

"Well, you weren't exactly helping me out, partner." She said, glaring at him.

"Come on Lilly, I'm on a date. I can't keep an eye on them and dance with Chloe at the same time!" Jackson said.

"Well, you could've told me that then!" Lilly said. "It doesn't matter anymore, the two of them are together, we don't have to associate with each other anymore. You can go back with being with Chloe."

"But…" Jackson trailed off. He was free! He was free of her; he could just go back inside and be with Chloe. But he found that he couldn't do that. "We'll always have to associate with each other. It's not like you won't be over at my place." He explained meekly. She glared at him.

"That's not what I mean! Ok Jackson, what I was saying that you don't have to be seen with me at school and out of school. Of course I'm going to be seeing you at your house, I practically live there."

"Yeah, yeah you do…" Jackson said, smiling a little. Then he remembered something she said before they left for the dance. "But we've still got tonight and you promised me a dance."

"Huh? When?"

"At home, you told Miley that we'd dance."

"But Jackson, I'm not exactly dressed for a dance." Lilly said and then her eyes went wide. "The dress! I can't remember where I put it!"

"You left it in my car, I saw it there this afternoon. You really want to go and change?" He asked.

"If I'm staying, then I guess I should." Lilly said.

He grabbed her arm and pulled her out to the parking lot then turned around and went rummaging through the mess in his car, throwing an old sandwich out into the cool night air.

"Here." he said, finally emerging and thrusting the bag with the dress in it into her hands.

She took it out. "Turn around." she commanded him.

"What?"

"I'm getting dressed, turn around."

"But..."

"Oh pu-lease Jackson. It's only you. It's not like you haven't seen me around Miley's in barely more than my underwear!"

He put his hands up to say he wasn't going to protest and swung around. He put his hand in his pockets and looked around the car to make sure no one else was coming while Lilly got changed.

"Ok, done." She said. Jackson turned around and saw her stuffing her clothes back into the bag. She threw the bag onto the backseat of the car. "Let's go."

"Ok, come." He said and took her hand. Lilly frowned as he pulled her forwards. Once in the light he could see what she looked like in the dress.

What he saw almost took his breath away. It was a little black number with thin spaghetti straps. He knew it would look good on her. He just didn't know how good.

"Wait. One thing." She took her cap off and her hair band out and let her hair fall gracefully to her shoulders.

"Wow." he said finally.

She blushed. "What?" she asked as though deeply embarrassed. "Did I miss something else?"

"Nope. Just... wow."

He checked around the place. Wondering how this might look to Chloe but as Lilly took a step towards him, he realized he didn't care. He squeezed the hand he was still holding tightly. "Ready?"

* * *

_Ok, maybe it was the chapter you were hoping for... Anyway, when we were writing this chapter, we managed to finish it as 10 word document pages... an I doubt you would like to read all of that in one chapter, so I split it into two halves. And I just know you guys are going to hate me for ending it there..._

**jade-kwl-name-eva and Jesus.Lives**


	16. Dance, Part 2

_Look, we're back! I'm sorry, hectic week and only now I find a little bit of time to post this._

**Partners in Crime**

**The Dance, Part 2  
**

"Yeah." Lilly replied and they walked into the school. They made their way through the crowd, away from people who knew them. An upbeat song was playing and there were a lot of people on the dance floor.

"Wait for the next song?" She asked.

"Yeah." Jackson said. They watched everyone else dancing until they spotted Miley and Oliver dancing together. They looked at each other and grinned, mission accomplished.

"You glad they're together?" Jackson asked.

"Yeah, why do you ask?"

"Won't you be kind of like the third wheel?"

"Maybe." She said as the song stopped and another one started. Jackson put his arms around her waist, echoing the movement of most of the other couples around them. "Guess I'll just have to find a boyfriend for me." she said, trying to sound nonchalant the way she would usually be with Jackson... but he'd just put his hands on her so she had an excuse for her voice to suddenly get high pitched and squeaky.

"I'm sure that will be no problem," he told her softly as she brought her arms up over his shoulders. He grinned, trying to soften the tense mood and made her hips move with his hands, swinging them side to side and making her laugh loudly, causing the couples dancing nearby to glance in their direction. Jackson took a hand off her for a second to wave at them.

She unconsciously moved in closer to him and he put his hand back around her, drawing her in closer as well. She rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes, smiling slightly. This was her last moment with Jackson and she was going to enjoy it.

But the two didn't see Chloe making her way towards them. When she hadn't seen Jackson come back inside and when he didn't come back to her, she thought he'd gotten lost. So she started searching the dance floor for him, in case he somehow got lost there and saw the two of them.

She saw Lilly put her head on Jackson's shoulder and close her eyes and that's when she knew. She knew that there was more to Lilly and Jackson's relationship than meets the eye.

They slowly turned and Jackson had to look up right then. His gaze met Chloe's and he stopped dancing.

"Jackson, what...?" Lilly began and then she saw Chloe who was standing there watching them. "Oh."

Jackson wiped his hands on his pants and took a step towards Chloe, feeling horribly guilty for some reason. It was just one dance, right?

Chloe stepped away from his advances towards her. "No Jackson, it's OK."

He looked hesitantly at her. "Com'on Chloe. She's my kid sister's friend, I couldn't say no."

Even though Lilly was expecting this she felt as though her heart was breaking. Her eyes flooded with tears that she wished weren't coming and she turned her back on them.

"Just give me another chance." Jackson was saying, but Lilly was trying to block the sounds out, her shoulders heaving with the sobs she was still trying to wish away.

Chloe stood back and Jackson felt caught between the two girls, even though he'd been pleading (in a sense) with Chloe, he turned back towards Lilly for reinforcement but she'd turned away from him.

"Jackson…" Chloe started to say. He turned to look at her again. She looked at Lilly and then back at Jackson. "It's ok. I understand. It's just one dance, right?"

Jackson opened his mouth to agree, but closed it. He was just so confused right now, did he want Chloe as his girlfriend or was it Lilly?

"Right?" Chloe added when he didn't answer. Lilly turned around to face him, waiting for his answer. Jackson looked between both girls, why must this be so difficult?

Meanwhile, Oliver and Miley who had been holding each other for the entirety of the slow song broke away from each other as it came to an end. Miley didn't have to scan the gym to see where the commotion was. Although they'd clearly not wanted to make a big deal, people were turning to where Jackson was standing between the two girls in curiosity.

Miley rolled her eyes. Jackson seemed to have girl trouble at every dance... until she recognized one of the girls as being her best friend.

Miley gave a worried look to Oliver and they both bolted through the gym over to where she was. Miley grabbed Jackson and tugging him away where Oliver went around to level his eyes with Lilly's, his hands on her shoulders and then he pulled her into a hug when he saw the tears that she was clearly trying to hide from him.

"Jackson." Miley sounded peeved at her brother, "What is going on and why is Lilly wearing that dress now?"

Jackson put on his best 'I'm-innocent-and-you-can't-prove-otherwise-face', but Miley didn't buy it.

"Jackson…" She said in a warning voice.

"I said I'd have one dance with Lilly and Chloe might've taken it the wrong way." Jackson said, fidgeting the end of his shirt.

"Oh boy." Miley said. "Jackson, is it Chloe who you really like? Is it Chloe who you really fell for? Or could it possibly be someone else?"

"Like who?" Jackson asked, frowning. Truth was, he knew what Miley was talking about; he just didn't want to admit it to himself that during the time he and Lilly had spent together, he had fallen for her. And hard.

It was the last thing he wanted to admit to his little sister though – the shame! Miley whacked him in the back of the head with her open palm.

"Hey! Ow!"

"Well... if you were waiting for Chloe, you'd better a make a move now." Miley narrowed her eyes to where some random guy had just gone to ask Chloe to dance.

Chloe looked hesitantly to Jackson who avoided her eyes and took the boys hand.

"Sweet nibblets boy. What is wrong with you?"

Jackson frowned. "I don't know, Miles. I really don't know."

"Well, you have to figure this out. Your girlfriend is dancing with another guy."

"And it doesn't affect me." Jackson mumbled. "Miles, I just go and have a good time, I'll work this out myself."

"Why am I even more worried?" Miley asked.

"You're so funny." Jackson said sarcastically. He looked back at Oliver and Lilly who had moved towards the drinks table. "But I must talk with Chloe first."

"Fine." Miley said, putting her hands up and walking towards her two friends. Jackson turned and walked towards Chloe and her new dance partner. He tapped him on the shoulder.

"Sorry, but I've got to speak with her." Jackson said, taking Chloe by the arm and leading her off the dance floor. "We have to talk."

"You chose her, didn't you?" Chloe asked, taking her arm out of his grasp. "You chose Lilly."

"What?"

"I'm not blind Jackson, I always knew there was something more going on between you two. You've known each other longer then you've known me, but you chose me over her. Why?"

"I think you've got this all wrong." he started.

She cut him off. "Typical."

"Excuse me?"

"Typical of a guy to be so deep in denial."

Jackson was sick of it. "Fine. You know what? Maybe I do have a secret thing for my sister's friend. But it doesn't change why I went after you in the first place."

"Com'on Jackson. You went after me because you're a guy. But it's not my heart you're breaking tonight." Chloe indicated to where Lilly stood, with Oliver's arm around her watching the couples dance. "I'm a big girl, I can take it. We can still be friends."

Jackson turned to her, blinking a few times. He let what she just said sink in. "We're breaking up?"

"Yeah, it's for the best. The past week has been amazing for me, you're a great guy, but not the guy for me." Chloe said. "You'll be better off with Lilly."

Jackson didn't know what to do. He and Chloe were no more; he could go straight to Lilly, right? But he couldn't, not yet.

"Thanks Chloe." He said and pulled her in for a hug. She patted him on the back and then pushed away.

"Go get her tiger." She said. Jackson smiled a little and then turned to head towards Lilly and Oliver. Chloe wiped away the tears and smiled at Jackson's back and made her way back towards the guy who she was dancing with.

Jackson nodded a greeting to Oliver as he came near and Oliver took his arm off of Lilly's shoulder and nudged her gently to where Jackson was coming from.

"Ahem." Jackson cleared his throat nervously as he stepped towards her. "If you wanted to take that dance again..."

Lilly nodded silently and took his hand as he led her out to the dance floor. She wrapped her arms around his neck, still wordlessly, and listened as he breathed a sigh of relief and placed his hands back around her waist.

"Uh, Chloe and I aren't together anymore." Jackson said. He just couldn't handle this silence that had fallen over the two of them since they started dancing.

"Really?" Lilly asked, feeling guilty. They had broken up and it was all her fault…

"Uh, yeah, Chloe thought it was better if we remained friends." Jackson said.

"That's… nice."

"Yeah." Jackson said. Silence fell over them again. They continued dancing until the song was over. Lilly pulled away from Jackson and started to walk away, but he stopped her.

"I'm a skateboarder and I'm not the best surfer, but you know that. You've seen me when I wake up in the mornings and when I wore Hannah's clothes. You're the only girl outside of my family who knows everything about me." Jackson said.

"It's because I'm Miley's friends, I'm always over at your house." Lilly explained.

"Yeah, I guess." Jackson responded. His mouth close to her ear. "But no girl has ever seen me like that."

"Are you afraid they wouldn't want you if they saw you like that?" She asked tentatively. She thought she knew why he never let any girls see that side of him. He was always trying to be something else: a celebrity, a motor cross champion, a surfer, a millionaire... he was just too afraid that no one would like the real Jackson.

He chuckled lightly, "I guess I just don't consider myself much of a catch."

Lilly didn't know what to say to this for a moment. Finally the words came to her. "You're wrong Jackson." They weren't saying much, but the words were heartfelt.

His fingers fluttered across her back sending chills up her spine. "Thanks." he said simply, letting the music guide them.

"Why… Why did you actually want to date Chloe?" Lilly asked.

"I thought she was hot."

"Thought?"

"At the time, before I got to know her. Then I spent more time with her and…" Jackson trailed off. He wasn't talking about Chloe anymore.

"What?"

"Lilly, Chloe and I are over and so I don't have a date anymore. I know this is kinda last minute, but would you be my date?"

"Well, what are we doing?"

"Uh, dancing? Does that mean you accept or am I going to have join Rico and sulk in a corner?"

"Oh Rico!" Lilly turned around to see him. She forgot all about him. "Give me a minute."

Jackson was about to protest, as Lilly left his arms, but she turned back around and kissed him on the cheek. "I'm your date." she answered him and then walked over to Rico.

"Hey." she said as she came close to him.

"Woah Momma do you clean up nice!" Rico exclaimed after peering in the dark to see who it was.

Lilly was about to grab him like Miley would, by the front of his shirt... but didn't.

"You got someone to dance with?"

"Am I going to dance with you or Jackson?" Rico narrowed his eyes at her and then at Jackson in the distance who was watching them.

"Neither… well me if you want to. It's my fault that you're here dateless." Lilly said.

"How?"

"I gave you hope that you could win Miley."

"Oh, right." Rico's face fell, but he then looked up and smiled. "Don't worry toots, I've got backup."

Lilly then watched as Rico walked past her towards a girl his age. Lilly shook her head as Jackson walked towards her.

"That's Rico taken care of."

"Oh, does that mean I've got your attention for the rest of the night?"

"Yes. So partner, want to do some more spying? I saw Miley and Oliver leave the gym."

Jackson then made a face, looking at the exit of the gym. "Not if there is kissing involved. I do not want to catch seeing my sister and Oken kissing."

"Suite yourself then." Lilly said, leaving him behind. Jackson groaned, but followed her outside.

The cool breeze hit them as they left the body-heated gym. Lilly reached down and grabbed Jackson's hand. "Where do you think they've gone?"

Jackson groaned yet again, this time slightly louder in which to get his point across. "Don't know. Don't care."

"Let's go do something fun then!" Lilly told him, and pretended to think and then put her hand up on the air with one finger raised. "I've got it! To the beach!"

"Genius." answered Jackson, wrapping his arm around her, "I knew there was a reason I chose you."

Lilly seemed interested by this. "So you did choose me then?"

"Well... I guess you just kinda grew on me Lilly Truscott."

Lilly rolled her eyes at him. "How romantic."

"Hey! I can be romantic!" Jackson countered.

Lilly smirked. "Please Jackson. A fish is more romantic then you..."

But she didn't get to finish her sentence as Jackson pulled her closer and his lips met hers. Lilly's eyes widened in surprise, but she kissed him back, moving her arms around his neck.

He pulled away and then smirked. "Was that better then kissing a fish?"

"Eww, you actually think I've kissed a fish before?"

"No, but if you did, is it better?"

"Jackson… a fish may be more romantic, but I doubt it'll be a better kisser."

"Aha, so I am better then a fish!" Jackson said triumphantly. Lilly giggled and shook her head.

"Put it there, partner."

"Am I always going to be your partner?"

"Well… what else do you want to be?"

"Uh… you're boyfriend?"

"Fine, you're now my boyfriend." Lilly said, smiling.

And from there she took off with him, laughing as they walked down to the beach.

"Mission accomplished" Lilly turned to Jackson, because as they walked past the exiting people from the dance, they spotted Miley and Oliver kissing deeply over by the palm trees lining the school yard.

"Did not want to see that." he screwed up his nose.

"How about we give them a show of our own?" She leaned in and pressed her lips softly to his, her eyes fluttering shut. They were engrossed in the kiss, until they heard a familar Tennessee accent to their side.

"Ew... brother... best friend. Oliver hide me!" Lilly saw Miley hiding herself in Oliver's chest out of the corner of her eye.

"As you wish m'lady." Oliver answered, doing a small curtsy as Miley peeked at Jackson and Lilly from the part of his shirt she was holding over her face.

"You know, we knew all along that we were setting you two up together." Jackson said smugly as the four of them turned to walk back to Jackson's car.

"Ya think?" Miley and Oliver obviously figured it out all by themselves.

"Thanks." Oliver told Jackson and Lilly shyly.

"Yeah, thanks" Miley repeated smiling at the three people who meant the most to her in the whole world. "Wait, so you and Jackson were like partners or something?"

* * *

_Not the ending... got the epilogue to do..._

**jade-kwl-name-eva and Jesus.Lives**


	17. Epilogue

_Well, this is the end. It's been an awesome ride and a shout out to my partner, Jesus.Lives, I had fun writing this with ya! _

**Partners In Crime**

**Epilogue**

"Lilly, reason why we're here?" Jackson asked as the two of them walked towards the skate park.

"You'll see." Lilly said, smiling at him. Jackson just shrugged and followed her in. She put on her helmet and dropped her skateboard on the ground, skating towards a girl at the other end of the park.

"That's… Chloe?" He said to himself, eyes going wide. It was her! Then what were the two of them doing at the skate park? He started running after Lilly, but only caught up to her when Chloe spotted them. She walked towards them, a neutral look on her face.

"You ready Lilly?" She asked as she came closer. Lilly nodded and the two girls skated towards the half pipe, leaving a very confused Jackson behind them.

"No, wait! What is going on?" He shouted after them.

"Not everything is about you Jackson." Lilly answered him, as she stopped and steadied herself on her board.

"Yeah Jackson." Chloe backed her up stopped beside her.

"Chloe and I just wanted to have a friendly competition."

Jackson looked doubtful. "And this competition has nothing to do with me?"

"No. Just sit down and make yourself scarce." Lilly told him, and he saluted her.

"Yes ma'am." Jackson then moved away and sat down on the bench and watched the two girls. They were talking to each other and then laughing, looking at him. "Hey, no gossiping about me!"

"Don't worry about that Jackson!" Lilly shouted back at him as Chloe took to the pipe. She skated down it and when she got to the other side, she pulled her board closer to her and did a 180 turn before her board hit the surface of the pipe again and she skated to the other side.

She continued doing this, gaining more airtime each time. Jackson watched her, quickly looking at Lilly who had a neutral look on her face. Then Chloe came back up the pipe and she gained enough airtime. She pulled the board closer to her and then up, almost doing a back flip.

But she calculated it wrong and had to act quickly before landing on the pipe. She let go of her board as it went crashing on the ground while she hit the edge of the pipe with her knees. She skidded down it before she rolled off, jumping up and down and hitting her knees.

"Good thing I'm wearing jeans." She said to Lilly. "You wanna try that?"

"I've got something better." Lilly said, smirking as she put her board down on the ramp. She took a deep breath before she kicked off, going down the ramp.

Chloe stood off to the side as Jackson came closer to watch what trick his girlfriend had in store for the two of them. They watched as she did 180 turns, gaining more speed until she managed to get higher. Lilly then grabbed her board as her board turned. She was doing a triple 360 again.

"Oh no…" Jackson said, his eyes going wide. Both times he saw her try to do that trick, she almost got injured. He watched as she did the three turns and then came in for a clean landing.

Lilly stood up as her board touched the metal of the pipe. A huge grin could be seen on her face as she turned her board, stopping it. She had finally managed to do the turn without falling off!

Both Jackson and Chloe went running towards her. "That was..." Jackson started, genuinely surprised at how amazingly she accomplished that trick.

"Amazing..." Chloe finished for him,

"Yeah Lilly I knew there was a good reason I choose you." Jackson said. Chloe looked to him.

"You chose her?"

"No!" he yelped. "No!"

Chloe and Lilly laughed together. "So we're cool?"

Chloe smiled at Lilly and replied to her, "Yeah, we're cool."

"Awesome. See you around then Chloe." Lilly said and dragged Jackson away from the girl before anything else would spill out his mouth that would embarrass him.

"Do we have to run into her again?" Jackson asked.

"If our dates are at the skate park…" Lilly trailed off and stopped walking, turning to look at Jackson, who looked at her blankly. "Oh gee, I sure am starving."

"Is that a hint at something?" Jackson asked, playing dumb. Lilly nodded and he pretended to be thinking about what she just said. Lilly sighed in exasperation before Jackson started grinning.

"How about we head down to Rico's so I can show you off in front of him?"

"If you're only dating me to use me, then no." Lilly said and put her board back down and started skating away, but Jackson ran after her.

"Ok, how about we just go to Rico's and grab something to eat instead."

"Sounds great!"

"And you're not allowed to skate ahead of me." Jackson said and then pulled her off the board.

She grabbed him and pulled him to her stepping on the board with him. "Or you could just skate with me..."

Their combined weights sent them skating straight into a row of bushes nearby.

"Or not." Lilly chuckled, still clutching Jackson as they picked off bits of the bush.

"Let's say not." Jackson replied taking a twig from her hair.

"Yeah, I won't ask you to skate with me anymore..." They helped each other up.

"And you won't ask me to double date with Miley and Oliver anymore either?" he asked hopefully.

"That's going to be a negative. We're meeting up at the movies tonight."

"Dang."

"We don't have to watch them though."

"That's sounding like better news." He replied as she leant in to kiss him.

"But seems like we're the ones who have to watch you." Lilly and Jackson turned to see Miley and Oliver standing behind them, huge water guns in their hands.

"What are those for?" Lilly asked, looking worried.

"Our way of saying thanks." Oliver said and then brought up the gun and started spraying Lilly. She yelped and ran behind Jackson, who got hit by both water guns.

"Retreat!" Jackson yelled, grabbing Lilly. The two started to sprint down the boardwalk, Miley and Oliver following behind.

"We'll get you!" Miley shouted.

"Never!" Lilly shouted back as the two dived behind Rico's counter.

"Hey, what do you two-" Rico started, but was cut off as he was then sprayed with water. He turned around to face Miley and Oliver. "What was that for?"

"For pretending to be my date."

"And for trying to steal mine." Oliver said as he squirted Rico some more.

"I'm coming to get you!" Rico shouted as he started to run after Oliver. He grabbed the gun out of Miley's hands and started chasing after the older boy.

"Don't worry Oliver!" Miley shouted and then she giggled. "I'll come help you now!"

"And they say I'm immature." Lilly said, shaking her head as she looked up from behind the counter. She then felt Jackson's arms wrap around her and pull her back on the ground.

"Well, you are my girlfriend now. And always my partner in crime." He said, shrugging. Lilly just grinned.

"And I'm proud to be both." And she kissed him again, while Oliver's shouts could be heard in the background, along with Rico's victory song.

* * *

_And it is officially over now. Sad. But don't worry guys, I'm working with Jesus.Lives on Don't Stop Till You Get Him Kicked Out of the House. _

_And both of us would like to thank you, the faithful readers and reviewers! You guys are the best! Till next time, _

**jade-kwl-name-eva and Jesus.Lives**_  
_


End file.
